International, award-winning photographer Dick Swanson found himself in Philadelphia in the summer of 1973, photographing the streets, the people, and the mountainous piles of rusting, crushed cars for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Documerica project. This collection, spotted by Business Insider, reveals the tough sides of poverty, but through the slight burnt sepia of the vintage photos, behind the graffitied walls, the ruins, and the scattered trash, we also see moments of beauty. Grinning kids. Cheerful stripes of street art. Amazing bell bottoms. Jump back to the early seventies and over to the City of Brotherly Love for a look.
Photo credit: Dick Swanson / US National Archive
Photo credit: Dick Swanson / US National Archive
Photo credit: Dick Swanson / US National Archive
Photo credit: Dick Swanson / US National Archive
Photo credit: Dick Swanson / US National Archive
Photo credit: Dick Swanson / US National Archive
Photo credit: Dick Swanson / US National Archive
Photo credit: Dick Swanson / US National Archive
Photo credit: Dick Swanson / US National Archive
Photo credit: Dick Swanson / US National Archive