My fascination with photographing the northern section of the Frankford Elevated railway in Philadelphia began in the mid-1980's and continued for a decade. This mass transit line runs north to south paralleling the neighborhoods next to the Delaware River - the river wards. The Frankford El runs through old industrial neighborhoods that were once the backbone of Philadelphia's economy, but by the 1980's the industry was gone. When I began this series the 'El' itself was going to seed as well, however by the mid-1990's a revitalization was begun on the northern section of the line.


Originally my photographs were in black and white, but while I was at Temple University's Tyler School of Art in the late nineteen-eighties I became intrigued with alternative printing methods while taking classes in Non-Silver processes. These techniques were instrumental in my presentation of the photographs of the Frankford El.