Tom Gralish, 1985
In 1985, Tom Gralish took a series of photographs of the homeless people on the streets of Philadelphia. One of these images, showing a man named Walter eating on the side of the street, won Gralish the Pulitzer Prize. In the photo, Walter sits on a rainy sidewalk inside of a cardboard box underneath a sign that reads “No Parking”, slumping as he eats his food. Walter is kept in focus, while the background is slightly blurred. The photo was most likely shot using a telephoto lens so that Walter was in focus while his surroundings would be slightly blurred, in order to place the emphasis on Walter. The pedestrians pass by Walter without paying attention to him. During this time period, homelessness was a large problem in Philadelphia and had almost become normal. However, through Gralish’s photos, he brought attention to the abnormality of homelessness. The photograph shows a grimy man eating cheap food on the side of the street while others pass by in business suits on their way to their jobs in a way that suggests that this situation is normal. By photographing this situation, Gralish is using irony to bring attention to the fact that this situation is by no means normal or okay.
In comparison to the other Pulitzer Prize winning photographs, this photo was not as emotionally riveting as some of the others that documented murders, volcanoes, and war scenes. Ironically, the image is so interesting because does not evoke that same intense emotional response from the viewer that the other photographs did. The image’s power comes from the subtlety. Walter’s situation is quite shocking to most of us- he has no roof over his head, unless you consider a cardboard box a roof, struggles to find food, barely has any money, and enjoys very few of the luxuries that most of us enjoy on a daily basis. Gralish’s photograph brought much-needed attention to the serious problem of homelessness in Philadelphia.
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