A Different View of the River

Local artist Vince LoGreco wants to capture the beauty of several locations along the Schuylkill River, and he’s looking for local support to do it.

LoGreco, a former Phoenixville and current Blue Bell resident, spends a lot of time hiking and biking along the Schuylkill River Trail. Readers might have seen his photography work during the Phoenixville Firebird Festival or at local craft shows.

“I wanted to get back to doing black and white [photography] again,” LoGreco said,”and I wanted to look at what I could do with it.”

The photos will be shot on film and then collected in a coffee table book.

LoGreco originally planned to photograph the entire length of the river from Philadelphia to Schuylkill Haven, but realized that covering that area in the summer would be difficult. Instead, he chose to focus on the stretch of the river from Conshohocken to Reading.

He plans to shoot at least one roll of film at each location and use the top three images of each place in the book.

Locations will include Pottstown (Stowe/Kenilworth), Spring City, Royersford, Phoenixville, Oaks, Audubon, Valley Forge, King Of Prussia, West Norriton, Norristown and Bridgeport, among others.

He plans to bike sections of the trail and photograph everything within walking distance of the river.

LoGreco is seeking support via a newer form of social media, called crowdfunding. He is using the site Kickstarter to take donations ranging from $1 to $1000. Crowdfunding allows people to set up accounts with sites like Kickstarter and take small donations from many people.

Anyone who makes a donation receives something from LoGreco as a thank you: pledging a dollar earns you a “thanks!” from the artist, $10 nets you a digital copy of the book, $40 gets you a signed copy of the book.

The big donation, $1000, allows the donator to choose the photograph that goes on the cover of the book.

LoGreco hopes to raise $8,500 in order to purchase equipment that he needs and pay for some of the expenses. The Kickstarter deadline is just under 48 hours away - it ends on Saturday the 21st.

He will be out taking photos along the trail on weekends in August and hopes to publish the book soon afterward.

Follow Vince’s project on Kickstarter and at his website, Blueberry Arts.