Photographer turns lens on Philadelphia street harassment [photos]

Women on the streets of many cities are used to it: the whistles, catcalls and other unsolicited attention. One photographer in Philadelphia responded to the catcalls by turning her lens on her harassers.

Hannah Price grew-up in Colorado and said when she moved to Philly she wasn’t used to the catcalls she got as she walked along the street.

“I realized it was going to be a part of my life for a while, it was very consistent, everyday.”

So Price started taking pictures of the men who catcalled her. She wanted to change the power dynamic. “Turn it into something that I wanted and thought was beautiful, but also just switching the gaze.”

Price says her response to the men changed over time.  She became accustomed to the whistles and catcalling and wasn’t affected by them as much.  “They became my moments and I have documentation of it — just like the documentation of my life and my transition from white suburbia to urban America, I guess.”

One example she says is the photo of the man in her series in the salmon colored shirt. She says a year after photographing the man, she ran into him again. Only this time, instead of catcalling her again he approached her as a photographer.

“I remembered him, I remembered the photograph, I remembered not really liking the photograph. I wanted to make a better one.”

Price said she spent time with the man who was a musician and helped him by taking some photographs for his album.  She also took an extra photo for herself.

“There’s a girl on his lap and that happens to be his girlfriend and I like that photograph just because in that image our relationship was something else. It had evolved over time and since the last time we saw each other.”

Price said she moved to Philadelphia in 2009 on a whim, just to try a new place. She now lives in Connecticut where she says she still gets catcalls.