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Driving down the highway this weekend I had a view of the Philly skyline on my right, and a billboard looking something like this straight ahead of me:
These “Visit Philly” signs can be seen all over the city, and they were shot by Erin Patrice O’Brien. Though Erin now resides in New York, she was once a Philadelphia native, and can still pop back to the land of the cheesesteak and the home of the Fightin’ Phils to take some great photographs. This campaign was all about highlighting different areas of Philadelphia for visitphilly.com, an organization dedicated to sharing events and hotspots around the city for tourists and Philly explorers.
One huge obstacle the team faced was that they were photographing right up against the Papal visit, where Philadelphia completely shut down for the days of Pope Francis’s attendance. Erin rented a bike to get around the city in the days before the shoot, and she recalls the streets being completely devoid of cars, but filled with pilgrims. The Visit Philly shoot began the day after Pope Francis left, but the chaos of the city before that meant that their location permits and accessibilities were not confirmed until the very last minute. One of WM’s own producers helped out with the permitting.
The client gave Erin and her team a list of locations that they were interested in covering, but they also gave her a lot of freedom with the shot list. “It wasn’t one of the jobs where you are copying a drawing to fit into an ad,” says Erin. Instead, they were open to experimenting with locations and shots. Visit Philly even wound up casting some family friends of Erin’s who she was eating brunch with the day before the shoot for the colonial photo. They hit five locations each day for two days, working quickly and soaking up the spirit of brotherly love.
Being a Philly native, Erin was thrilled at getting to create photos that spoke to the history, culture, and absolute fun of this one-of-a-kind city.
I love Philly…it has its own identity. I find it a very inspirational place to photograph. I love the street art, the murals, the old signage from the 50’s and 60’s, the rainbow walk.
To view more of Erin’s work, visit erinepatriceobrien.com!