Lonely photos of tavern regular earn student recognition

Last summer, I saw Robert's picture for the first time in a Drexel Daily Digest. He was seated at the bar in McGlinchy's, one of Philadelphia's oldest taverns. He looked so familiar that for a moment I thought he was an actor. I saw him again not long ago, sitting at the same place and wearing the same outfit.

I was interviewing Sarah Stolfa, 30, a senior majoring in Photography. She took Robert's picture, along with other color portraits for a series called "The Regulars." Last year, she submitted the series to the New York Times Magazine Contest and won.

The multi-talented photographer fell in love with her career relatively recently. Before, she played the keyboard in a punk rock band called Delta 72. Her answers are serious but not without a sense of humor. She said she graduated from high school a year early and took off from home to play in bands. Later, she joined Delta 72, moved to Philadelphia and after personal problems with the band she separated from the group. It was, however, through one of the members of the band that she got her job at McGlinchy's, the place that would later become her own "studio" for the work that earned her the Times award.

After leaving Delta 72, Stolfa held a couple restaurant jobs, but she was still bored in the City of Brotherly Love. Not knowing what to do, she thought it was a good time to go back to school, but she did not know what to study. She always liked the arts, so she enrolled in the Associate Degree Photography Program at the Art Institute of Philadelphia.

"I absolutely love it," she said. "I think [photography] felt like everything in my life."

The more she learned, the quicker she fell for it. Some time went by and, as Stolfa said, she wanted to obtain a more grounded education. With this in mind, she transferred to Drexel and she liked it!

When asked what she likes about Drexel, she immediately responds, "My teachers," then adds that she also likes the photo facilities and history courses. For Stolfa the Drexel experience has been, "priceless." In fact, it was photography professor, Stuart Rome, that encouraged Stolfa to enter the New York Times Magazine Contest.

"He's always been very supportive of me and my work, but at the same time very critical of my work." Stolfa said.

"Sarah is a highly motivated student," Rome said. "I thought it [was] particularly important that she enter the work to the NY Times Contest because she began having doubts about her abilities to focus her energy, to find a project and get the work done."

Rome suggested Stolfa look at her life and what was going on as a way to search for possible project.

During the interview, Stolfa said that she barely had the time to travel or go to other places to develop a photo project for Rome's class. Her life orbited around work and school; that is where the idea of taking pictures at McGlinchy's came from and it worked very well. As Rome said, Stolfa seemed to have been a bit down at the time.

"I totally [thought] I was not going to win. I entered to the Drexel Annex Show and I didn't win that. What makes you think I was going to win the New York Times?" Stolfa said.

In addition to Rome, another supportive person in Stolfa's life is her mom.

"[She] is an amazing woman," she said. "She has completely supported me in everything I've done."

Stolfa's mother not only supported her, but she also provided a unique opportunity for Stolfa to be the photographer of a 60 day cross-country bike trip from San Francisco to Washington D.C. The trip was organized by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) between the months of June and August of 2003. Stolfa's mother previously worked with CCHD.

"The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) is the domestic anti-poverty, social justice program of the Catholic bishops in the United States," reads the CCHD web page, www.usccb.org/cchd/brakethecycle/index.html.

In an interview with CCHD, Stolfa said, "The ride itself is a personal challenge and experience I have dreamt of, and to be involved with a ride with a mission beyond myself is amazing."

According to the BBC's Country Profiles "More than 30 million Americans live below the official poverty line."

Although Stolfa is not a professional cyclist, she was physically fit for the challenge. Besides photography and music, another of her hobbies is boxing. "I was in good shape because I was boxing maybe three or four times a week and then running a lot," she said. "When I decided to go on that trip I just started training more."

Stolfa used the trip as an internship. She never joined the Co-op Internship Program because it would have delayed her graduation. "Maybe I should've done it," she said. "[But] the New York Times has opened doors to me."

McGlinchy's is a family owned bar located in the heart of the city. "The current owners bought it in 1968," Stolfa said, "it's been handed down through the family." Stolfa also said the things that make McGlinchy's popular are the cheap prices and its neighborhood-bar look, which offers a contrast to old city. McGlinchy's also has very eclectic customers. It was probably because of this wide-ranging crowd that Stolfa chose to do her photo project at McGlinchy's. The pictures indeed show a variety of people, yet they all come together as the "regulars" of McGlinchy's.

Stolfa does not consider herself an artistic photographer but rather a more pragmatic one. She does not see herself working in a studio with models and poses, but instead photographing real life. "I'm not one of those artists that like go deep inside and they make really like arty... you know, work or whatever," Stolfa said.

Stolfa's methods were first to have a writer/photographer's log and then to prolong the shooting period when she felt her subjects were not acting naturally.

"I don't take pictures of people that are posing for the camera, that's not what I want," she said.

The New York Times described Stolfa's work as "[suggesting] isolation and loneliness." The City Paper called it a "deft combination of warm and scientific approaches."

Stolfa's work developed as she wondered about the different views in the tavern, behind the bar and in front of the it. "I spend so much time in this bar, and behind the bar, that my perceptions of what the bar is like and the whole culture of it, it's very different from somebody who comes in from the outside."

Stolfa also said that she got interested in McGlinchy's regular customers because she perceived some sort of loneliness, which she can be aware of only as she stands behind the bar working. "[There] is something missing," she said. "I think there's a lot going on psychologically and socially... [with] the individuals."

When Stolfa learned she had won the New York Times Magazine Contest, she could not believe it. She doubted so much she could win that she had forgotten about it.

"Oh my God, it was amazing!" she said

Stolfa still works at McGlinchy's and plans to stay in Philly for approximately a year and a half.

Eventually, she would like to apply for graduate school at Yale or the Art Institute of Chicago or other similar institutions. At the moment, besides school and work, she also finds herself working on a book project as well as participating in an exhibition for emerging artists in a new gallery. In the end, I never met Robert; he left before the interview ended. I did, however, have the chance to meet a fellow Drexel student and felt proud of her success.

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