Type the search tag “Philly” into tumblr, and you will be met with glimpses of this post-industrial rust belt city that are dare-say more a testament to the living, breathing Philadelphia than what most media outlets (fashion blogs included) bother to cover: Heavily filtered Instagram photos from vantage points beneath the El and empty lots in upheaval where homes once stood. Fine photography of endless SEPTA hallways, wet pavement bus stops, and the clouds shrouding the buildings like mirrors, Comcast and Cira.
As Philadelphians past and present, we find purchase in the view from 215. Natives and transplants who have ever bothered to step outside of Center City and its immediate neighborhoods may already know that our metropolis of the fifth magnitude has no need to obsess over Blade Runner futurescapes of Tokyo, Berlin, London, New York, or any other city of renown — Philadelphia already carries the promise, the pulp, and the grit. Perhaps we find affinity with Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore, and the other American cities less loved by Hollywood feature. Yet we find ourselves here.
RECtheDirector stands out as one who does as well, a silent surveyor with an eye on corners of the city we may have all trod at least once before, offering more than just mundane snapshots of sentimental skylines or blighted rowhome neighborhoods. We suspect REC sees something — a city worth watching with all eyes open, perhaps. What REC does with the hard lens, we do with the speculative voice. Won’t you join us?
Check out more from REC on their tumblr and follow him on Instagram @recthedirector.