Sunday, October 25, 1 – 2pm
Detail of Philadelphia in Color book cover. Image courtesy Henry Groskinsky / LIFE Picture Collection
Free; registration required.
About the Talk
Celebrate the release of Hidden City Philadelphia’s newest book, Philadelphia in Color: 1950–1990. A deep and dynamic civic portrait, Philadelphia in Color illuminates the city’s visual history with over 360 images by more than 200 photographers. Enjoy a presentation about the project, followed by a discussion with editors Nathaniel Popkin, Alyssa Shea, Peter Woodall, and Alison Zeidman, moderated by the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Peter Barberie.
Registration includes access to the collection and Noguchi to Asawa: Designing Postwar America.
This program is presented in partnership with Hidden City Philadelphia, a nonprofit dedicated to exploring Philadelphia’s urban landscape in all its complexity through journalism and public history.
About the Book
Tracking the emergence of widespread color photography to the dawn of the digital age, Philadelphia in Color: 1950–1990 features hundreds of street photographs, portraits, and family snapshots that document the evolution of architecture, fashion, and expression in American urban life. Hidden City Philadelphia gathered the images from the collections of famous photographers and architects, including Stephen Shore, Denise Scott Brown, Laurie Olin, and Harvey Finkle, as well as dozens of amateurs. Together, the photos express the passion, pride, resilience, endurance, and flamboyance of a city and its people, while essays by the editors reframe the conversation about what kind of place Philadelphia was and might be.
Philadelphia in Color will be available for purchase in the Barnes Shop.
Speakers
Nathaniel Popkin
Popkin is the writer and producer of the documentary series In Pursuit: Philadelphia and the Making of America and For the Common Good: The Women Who Shaped the Nation. He is also the author, coauthor, or coeditor of several books, including The Possible City: Exercises in Dreaming Philadelphia, Song of the City: An Intimate History of the American Urban Landscape, and Philadelphia: Finding the Hidden City.
Alyssa Shea
Shea is a multimedia designer with collaborations spanning agencies, nonprofits, cultural organizations, entrepreneurs, writers, and artists. Her work has appeared in film festivals and art galleries, at book launches and trade shows, in storefronts and congressional reports, on billboards and tea tins. With partners like Hidden City Philadelphia, she’s involved in the documentation and preservation of Philadelphia’s vernacular history.
Peter Woodall
Woodall is a former newspaper reporter and public radio producer. He cofounded Hidden City Daily and is project director of its parent organization, Hidden City Philadelphia. He is coauthor of Philadelphia: Finding the Hidden City.
Alison Zeidman
Zeidman is an Emmy-nominated and Writers Guild Award–winning writer-producer who specializes in political, historical, and educational comedy. She has a background in arts and culture nonprofit administration and contributed to Engagement and Access: Innovative Approaches for Museums. She was program director for Hidden City Philadelphia until 2026 and cohosts the podcast Bitching & Mourning.
Peter Barberie
Barberie is the Brodsky Curator of Photographs and Head of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Since 2005, he has organized over 25 exhibitions and edited and authored numerous publications. His projects include Richard Benson: The World Is Smarter than You Are (2021), Long Light: David Lebe (2019), Paul Strand: Master of Modern Photography (2014), and Zoe Strauss: Ten Years(2012). Photo by Zoe Strauss
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