What's in a name?
Pretzel Park is located in the Manayunk neighborhood of Philadelphia. And why is it called Pretzel Park? Nobody seems to know for sure, but it has had that name for decades. The park is not shaped like a pretzel. Nobody sells pretzels there, and the pretzel wasn't invented there either. But no matter the name, the park is a lovely little oasis in an urban environment, a great place to let your dog off the leash and meet the neighbors. In 2005 the sculptor Warren Holzman made one of our favorite sculptures commemorating Philadelphia's love of the humble pretzel, and installed it in the park.
Now about the neighborhood name, Manayunk. That one’s easier: the citizens chose the name Manayunk in 1824 from the Lenape word “manaiung”, which literally translates to “place to drink”. We love it! Today there are many watering holes in Manayunk where patrons enjoy a beer and a… pretzel. We offer this photograph to celebrate the pretzel, the city behind it, and the people who don’t take themselves too seriously.
We're old school.
Pictured here is a medium format Plaubel Makina, a film camera from the 1980s that gets plenty of use here at CLYDE.
When it comes to photography, we like film. Our fashion models are photographed with cameras from generations past, and so are the photographs in our wall art series. We develop the film and scan the images ourselves, and value the analog hands-on nature of the work.
While we're on the subject
Say, could you use a book recommendation? Check out The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter, by David Sax.
Michiko Kakutani, writing for the New York Times, had this to say about the book:
In an increasingly digital world where physical objects and experiences are being replaced by virtual ones, Mr. Sax concludes, “analog gives us the joy of creating and possessing real, tangible things”: the hectic scratch of a fountain pen on the smooth, lined pages of a notebook; the slow magic of a Polaroid photo developing in front of our eyes; the satisfying snap of a newspaper page being turned and folded back; the moment of silence as the arm of an old turntable descends toward a shiny new vinyl disk and the music begins to play.
About framing, and if you should choose it
We offer our wall art in framed and unframed versions because framing is a matter of personal style and we want you to have the look that you want for your room.
The wood frame we offer features a clean black design, and the art is protected behind clear acrylic with no decorative matting surrounding the art. We made these choices because we love the look and want our art to be affordable. So if you want a more custom design, the best choice is to start with one of our unframed prints and work with a local framer.
(But we think you'll love our framed version!)
And finally, about delivery
Printing, framing, and carefully packaging your art takes time, but not as much as you might think. Normally it takes days, rather than weeks. We think you'll agree that the short wait is worth it.
