The photographs entitled: Nature's Murals were inspired in part by the work of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program (MAP)

During the summer of 2004 one of MAP's muralists, Ana Uribe, asked me to photograph the making of a mural she was working on in the 2200 block of Diamond Street in North Philadelphia. Traveling to and from her mural site I passed blocks and blocks of rundown houses and vacant lots. I began to take notice of how on many walls nature had begun to create her own murals. These murals were not painted with paint but with shadows and light cast by the tree branches. Near by trees helped frame these murals, climbing vines added additional color and sometimes a local graffiti artist left his/her own signature. The time of day and change of season added still further dimension and change to each wall. The walls never remained the same far too long.

Might some of these walls become future sites of murals to be painted by the Philadelphia Mural Program?
Does nature do her own murals best?
Let these photographs help you decide.

Photographers note: Since I began Nature's Murals wall from Mexico and Argentina have become part of this essay.