Gravy is pleased to present our first and only exhibition of 2021; From the Main Line by photographer Michael Froio which explores the historically significant Pennsylvania Railroad corridor across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, while considering its context within the contemporary landscape. This will be also be our first exhibition in the lobby of our building at 2424 Studios in Fishtown which has a rich history of its own as a former foundry for finishing machinery for the textile industry. Railroad tracks are still visible in the street which carried boxcars from the Riverfront Railroad directly into the building through what is now the front entrance.

The Pennsylvania Railroad once connected the eastern United States to the midwestern interior. Chartered in 1846 to secure Philadelphia’s route to western trade, the PRR was a network of 28,000 miles of track, with 279,000 employees moving 6700 trains daily. At its peak, the railroad carried ten percent of America’s freight and twenty percent of the traveling public. The self-proclaimed ”Standard Railroad of the World” built infrastructure and traffic-control systems still critical to rail transportation. Following its 1968 collapse, the once unified system was carved into separate, but interdependent corridors across the Mid Atlantic, leaving conjunctions and dis-junctions that mark an American way of life.

Michael Froio is a photographer and educator in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Much of his work focuses on understanding the built environment and how history creates a compelling narrative in photography. Michael's commissioned work includes architectural, railroad, and heavy industry documentation and research projects in various mediums, including large format film, digital stills, videos, and time-lapse photography. His work resides in noted collections, including the Library of Congress, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Woodmere Museum, and the Camden County Arts Bank collection.