Associate Dean Andrew Mendelson, a photojournalist by trade, has contributed his first story to The New York Times’ visual journalism blog, Lens.
The story profiles 81-year-old photographer Harvey Finkle, who has been documenting the local Mummers parade on South Second Street in South Philadelphia every year since 1973.
The “Two Street” celebration occurs after the more famous annual Mummers Parade along Broad Street in Center City Philadelphia on New Year’s Day. The tradition of marching men with painted faces and parasols, flamboyantly dressed in satin, sequins, and feathers, dates back officially to the early 1900s.