Last Chance

Catch It or Regret It

by Holly Otterbein

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Passage of Time, Passage of Place

When I was almost 10, I begged my dad to let me plant a time capsule in the backyard before we moved out of our one-story Baltimore home. He humored me — and we poured troll dolls, a Nintendo game I was no longer interested in, a Strawberry Shortcake notebook and other various preteen artifacts into a cardboard box, and topped it off with dirt. Looking at Matt Hollerbush's photographs of the Divine Lorraine Hotel, I realize I did it all wrong. I should've buried the entire house instead.

His shots of the Philly landmark, first built in the 1890s for the nouveau riche and later run by the progressive but kind of cult-y Universal Peace Mission Movement, robustly capture various time periods in a way that not even the most carefully curated museum exhibit can.

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"In 2006, everything was surprisingly intact, as if the tenants had just left," says Hollerbush. "Rooms with furniture, personal belongings and lots of peeling paint." Indeed, his photographs — of retro couches (pictured), immaculate china plates, and cracked walls painted in innocent colors like seafoam green and periwinkle — seem to capture the site of an ancient disaster, which everyone had fled in a hurry. Unfortunately, these tiny footnotes in history may soon vanish as thoroughly as its inhabitants have. "In 2007, everything including the floor boards was being salvaged for resale," he says. "It was stripped of the luxuries and details." Ends Sept. 17, Group M Designers and Consultants, Piazza at Schmidts, 1050 N. Hancock St., Suite 61, 215-546-1995, group-m.com.

Epic Birthday

Don't scoff at Ken Penn's photography just because it's made its way into fashion mags and corporate catalogs — or because Penn calls himself "Kencredible." By blending flamboyant, drag-inspired makeup and hairstyles with overtly feminine clothing, the local photographer does much more to question social roles than the average Vogue. Ends Sept. 15, Amberella Gallery & Boutique, Piazza at Schmidts, 1050 N. Hancock St., Suite 62, 610-283-5669, amberellagallery.com.

(holly.otterbein@citypaper.net)