Harvey Finkle

Friday, August 28, 2009


The Being We the People: Afghanistan, America and the Minority Imprint project has taken the cooperation of numerous people across an ocean. Students and teachers from Marefat High School in Kabul and Constitution High School in Philadelphia, along with staff from the National Museum of Afghanistan and the National Constitution Center, blogger and photographer Nasim Fekrat in Afghanistan, and acclaimed photographer Harvey Finkle in Philadelphia have been working together diligently.

Finkle is a documentary still photographer who has produced a substantial body of work concerned with social, political and cultural issues. His work has been extensively exhibited and published, including three books entitled, Urban Nomads, Still Home: Jews of South Philadelphia, and Reading.

His recent work includes a documentation of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU), a poor people's movement emanating from the most impoverished neighborhood in Pennsylvania; and The Jews of South Philadelphia, interviews and photographs of the remnants of what once was among the largest Jewish communities in the nation. Finkle also took a contingent of Philadelphia students to a Cambodian temple in South Philadelphia where they were able to conduct interviews and take photographs.

Finkle continues his work with various communities in Philadelphia by being Fekrat's counterpart stateside, taking on the role of teaching Constitution High students how to use their cameras, the techniques of photography and how to interpret the themes of the exhibition into powerful images. The results will be fascinating with the students on both sides of the ocean in such capable hands.

Discover Harvey Finkle's work at http://www.harveyfinkle.com/