Photographer Sara Pinkus is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this street/documentary photography. From the project ‘Fishtown/Kensington Mural Walk’ To see Sara ’s body of work, click on any photograph.

Lutheran Settlement House – In Service to Women
The actual mural title and artist: Persistence by artist Jason Andrew Turner. It is painted on the side of the Lutheran Settlement House.

A Window into Healing Hands
The actual mural title and artist: Building America: German-American Immigration & Contributions to the New World by artist Michael Webb is located in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia Pennsylvania.

Building Blocks for Humanity
The actual mural title and artist: The Value of Family by artist Eric Okdeh. It is on the side of the NorthEast Treatment Center (NET). The full quote on the mural is from George Bernard Shaw: “Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family.”

Tapped and Traded
Mural artist/title not identified It has since been replaced with another sports themed mural because Thybulle was traded. The Location is a sports bar called Garage.

Philly: Street-Sized Stories

I often take photo walks in Philadelphia, focusing each outing on a single aspect of the city’s character. In this series, I turned my attention to the mural artworks for which the city is renowned. With more than 4,000 murals exploring themes of community, history and social issues, the walls serve as an open-air gallery woven into daily life.

I introduce the series with In the Making, capturing a mural in progress — a signal of what follows. When photographing public art, I aim to interpret rather than simply document. In Serendipitous Alignment I and II, I was drawn to the visual echoes between the murals and the unscripted street activity unfolding beneath them.

In the Making
Mural artist/title not identified

Serendipitous Alignment I
Mural artist/title not identified

Serendipitous Alignment II
Mural artist/title not identified

Other works drew me in through their bold color palettes, the seamless way they are woven into the surrounding architecture, and the powerful stories they tell. Some images isolate a single narrative fragment — one piece of the story — while others pull back to show the mural in full, embedded within its urban surroundings.

Fishtown’s Table
The actual mural title and artist: You Can Be Stronger than Diabetes by artist Kristin Groenveld. This mural has since been painted over.

Residents of Fishtown
The actual mural title and artists: Welcome to the Neighborhood by artists Jeffro Kilpatrick and Brad Carney.

Biography

Sara Pinkus is a photojournalist with two decades of experience volunteering for charitable and non-profit organizations and pursuing her love of photography. After retiring from a banking career, she began freelancing for a local newspaper, capturing a wide and varied range of community events. She embraces multiple styles of photography, fueling her creative passion and desire to continually grow as a photographic artist.

Artist Statement

I express visual stories using multiple photographic genres to convey the essence of lived experiences, taking great pride in artistic representation. Using creative techniques, I add a distinct, expressive style that transforms static moments into immersive visual narratives. My goal is to transport viewers, making them feel as if they were there, absorbed in the magic of the moment.

All images and text © Sara Pinkus