Graffiti Pier

The recent sad news that a 30-foot section of Philadelphia’s Graffiti Pier collapsed into the Delaware caused me to reflect on my only visit to this unique public art space three summers ago. 

My oldest son Noah has wanderlust, though his desire to explore new and interesting places didn’t really start to emerge fully until he was old enough to drive. Unfortunately, his newfound mobility was inconveniently hampered by a once in a generation pandemic where we were told we really shouldn’t leave our houses. Not a great outcome for the nascent traveler.

A long-planned two-week historical tour through Europe with other high school students between his junior and senior years had already been canceled in the summer of 2020, and trips to hike through local state parks just weren’t cutting it anymore. The next summer, before he left us for college, I was trying to balance Noah’s desire to travel with my selfish instinct to keep him as close by as possible.

An adventure to Philadelphia to visit Graffiti Pier seemed to be a perfect intersection of our interests at the time. At least for that day, it satisfied Noah’s longings to visit new places and it gave me lots of time in the car with my soon departing son.  Sprinkling in some photography never hurts either.

While I’ve always been naturally drawn to the colors and patterns graffiti has to offer me as a photographer, if I’m not bringing something of my own to the composition it too often feels like I’m strictly documenting someone else’s art instead of creating my own. Graffiti Pier offered plenty of art to capture that day, but it did prove more difficult for me to capture it in a transformative way.

Ultimately, none of that mattered. More importantly, Noah got to log another post-Covid adventure and I got to spend one more day with my son before he left for college. Getting great pictures is nice, some things are better.

Graffiti Pier – Photo Gallery