{"id":95291,"date":"2026-01-24T04:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T04:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/95291\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T04:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T04:35:09","slug":"big-rubes-philly-gazing-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/95291\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Rube\u2019s Philly: Gazing Back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lately, I\u2019ve been waking up with joy in my heart. Over the past couple months, I received multiple diagnoses: stage 4 prostate cancer, heart failure and kidney failure. My days have been full of doctor visits, surgeries and dialysis, and I\u2019ve never felt more grateful for my life and the people in it.<\/p>\n

My friends have been showing up: in the hospital, with calls, messages and contributions to a GoFundMe they established.<\/a> And I\u2019ve been sending them photos I\u2019ve taken of them through the years. It\u2019s a beautiful thing, an exchange of love. It\u2019s gotten me through, and gotten me thinking.<\/p>\n

Back when I was shooting my \u201cStreet Gazing\u201d column for the Daily News, the people who\u2019d turn my eye and I\u2019d photograph appeared for one day in print, and were gone the next. My subjects and readers called me Philly\u2019s own \u201cBill Cunningham,\u201d comparing me to the late, great, New York Times street style photographer.<\/p>\n

Through his decades, Bill had some favorite subjects, and I did too. As I take a break from my regular column, I \u2018d like you to meet some of them. They come from the days pre-Covid, when people dressed up to go to the office, out for coffee, or dinner on Rittenhouse Square. And they\u2019ve become my friends.<\/p>\n

Eddie Burns <\/p>\n

Back in the 90s, when I was working in restaurants and scooping water ice, I was known as \u201cBaby Ralph.\u201d I was a West Philly teenager in the early 90s who loved to wear Ralph Lauren, head-to-toe Polo. When I would go into the Ralph Lauren store, the employees would have clothes waiting for me, and I got to know the staff there.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Eddie Burns, then in sales at Ralph Lauren in Center City. <\/p>\n

Eddie Burns worked in the Ralph Lauren store in the Shops at the Bellevue when I did my column. Come to find out he\u2019s from South Philly, and his cousin is basketball legend Donnie Carr<\/a>. Eddie and I became cool. He\u2019s six-four, a handsome Black man, walking around with velvet Ralph Lauren slippers on, sweaters with embroidery on them \u2014 a real style guy who cuts a profile.<\/p>\n

Stacey Kracher \"\"<\/a>Stacey Kracher, then a publicist for a Center City law firm. <\/p>\n

Stacey and I became friends 20 years ago, when she was doing PR for the law firm Zarwin Baum DeVito. I decided to shoot her because I wanted people to see what it looked like to be a lady with feminine style that\u2019s still cool in today\u2019s culture. This girl, the only time I saw her wear flats was when she was walking her dog on Saturdays at the Rittenhouse Farmers Market. Otherwise, she was in four- or five-inch Louboutins, coming and going from her Center City apartment. Today, she\u2019s living the mommy life.<\/p>\n

Bennett Weinstock \"\"<\/a>Interior designer and Rittenhouse fixture Bennett Weinstock. <\/p>\n

The late interior designer Bennett Weinstock was always ready for my camera, from 20th Street to Broad Street. He\u2019d be dressed in a sport coat with elbow patches, velvet Belgian slippers, and nice frames on. Sometimes, I\u2019d catch him with an ascot. He and his wife Judie \u2014 always very proper. When I saw him heading my way, I\u2019d mess with him and say, \u201cLook at the king of the WASPs coming down the street.\u201d Bennett loved that.<\/p>\n

Debra Newman \"\"<\/a>Debra Newman, whose style reminds me of my grandmother\u2019s. <\/p>\n

I will never forget when I met Debra Newman. I captured her candidly walking past aka on 18th Street. I saw the pep in her step and got the perfect shot. The next thing you know, she tapped me in front of Barney\u2019s when it was on Walnut. She asked if I remembered her, and I said, \u201cI love your style.\u201d I told her she reminds me of old pictures of my grandmother, how she never went out of the house without gloves, pantyhose, a hat and heels.<\/p>\n

Rob Thomas \"\"<\/a>Rob Thomas in winter. <\/p>\n

Rob Thomas was an Army vet who\u2019d been to Vietnam and was an executive for Independence Blue Cross. He drove exotic cars, lived in Cali and Chestnut Hill, and wore the best \u2014 a lot of Ralph Lauren, all tailored. He and Freddie Barnett, the former Eagles wide receiver, were great friends. The three of us were at the La Colombe across from City Hall when Fred\u2019s back seized on him, and Rob and I carried him four blocks to his house.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Rob Thomas in spring. <\/p>\n

When you\u2019d ask Rob, \u201cWhat you doing today?\u201d he would put his finger in his mouth, let it hit the wind and say, \u201cWhatever the wind is blowing me.\u201d Rob recently passed away. He was 80. His memorial service had a shrine of all the photos of him from \u201cStreet Gazing\u201d \u2014 all framed up. It got me tearing up. It was amazing.<\/p>\n

West Philly born and raised with a slosh of Brooklyn,\u00a0Big Rube<\/a> partnered with Mitchell & Ness in 2000 to help make it a global brand marketing and selling high-end throwback jerseys. He has been photographing Philly since 2009, including in a Daily News Column from 2011 to 2017. He\u2019s also a chef, preparing to open his own space in 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\" MORE FROM BIG RUBE\u2019S PHILLY<\/p>\n

My self-portrait, by Reuben “Big Rube” Harley.