Harvey Finkle was born in 1934 into a working-class Jewish family and grew up in Oxford Circle, known as the northeastern edge of Philadelphia at that time. Shortly after matriculating at Temple University, he was drafted into the army. When his military duty ended, he returned to complete his studies at Temple and received a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work. Finkle worked at the Pennsylvania State Board of Assistance, exposing him to the systemic racism, poverty, and injustice that would shape his activism. His interest in photography developed after viewing a Harry Callahan exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1962. Concurrently, his interest in social change and organizing grew, leading him and a group of social workers to form the People’s Fund, which later became the Bread and Roses Community Fund. Over time, Finkle established lasting relationships with various social justice organizations, including Disabled in Action, Project HOME, Kensington Welfare Rights Union, and Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death Penalty. In the 1980s, he began documenting the experiences of Philadelphia’s newly arriving immigrant communities. Following the birth of his two children, who were born deaf, he became an activist for the deaf community, often photographing the fullness of their daily lives.

Julie Jensen Bryan, a native Philadelphian, is a philanthropist and photographer. She began her career as a medical researcher at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, where photography was used as an analytic tool. This led to a lifelong interest in making photographs and subsequent studies with Arnold Newman, Mary Ellen Mark, and Lisette Model. She is known for her spare and elegant architectural images as well as her iconic portraits of Maggie Kuhn, the founder of the Gray Panthers. She and her husband, Robert Bryan, have been supporters of TILT since its founding in 2009.  Julie is an advocate and supporter of the arts community in Philadelphia.

Ray K. Metzker (September 10, 1931 – October 9, 2014) was an American photographer known chiefly for his stark, experimental black-and-white cityscapes and for his large assemblages of printed film strips and single frames, known as Composites.

Neither seeking nor achieving particular renown during his lifetime, Metzker’s work is held in more than 45 major public collections; is the subject of eight monographs; and was the subject of 50 one-man exhibitions. He received awards, including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Royal Photographic Society.

Born in Milwaukee on Sept. 10, 1931, to William Martin Metzker and Mary Helen Metzker (nee Kreuger). Metzker’s passion for photography was cemented when his mother gave him a camera at age 12. Photography “gave him a connection, a way of formally encountering the world and expressing his love for it, or what he calls his belief “about the goodness of things.”Metzker would develop photographs in his bedroom, winning numerous high school competitions sponsored by Eastman Kodak.[3]

Metzker graduated from Beloit College in Wisconsin with a fine arts degree in 1953; entered the Army and served in Korea; subsequently graduated with a Master’s degree in 1959 from the Institute of Design at the Institute of Design in Chicago, where he studied with eminent photographers Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind.[ Metzker taught for many years at the Philadelphia College of Art and also taught at the University of New Mexico.

He lived in Philadelphia from the 1960s until his death, was married to the photographer Ruth Thorne-Thomsen, and died on October 9, 2014.

Ruth Tenney Thorne-Thomsen (May 13, 1943 – October 27, 2025) was an American photographer who resided in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Important collections of her work are held by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Nelson-Atkins Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago. She was married to the photographer Ray K. Metzker until his death in 2014.

She studied photography at Columbia College Chicago (1971–1973) and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1974–1976), following earlier programs in dance and painting at Columbia College, Missouri (1961–1963) and Southern Illinois University, Carbondale (1966–1970).

Early in her studies, she encountered pinhole photography and began exploring its potential through multiple overlapping series, notably Expeditions (1976–1982), Prima Materia (1984–1987), Views from the Shoreline (1986–1987), and Songs of the Sea (1991–1993). She made many of these pictures in Chicago and Santa Barbara, as well as Door County, Wisconsin. They owned a home in Castle Valley from 1999 until 2016, and both photographed extensively in the area. Thorne-Thomsen also explored other aspects of photography, notably in her series Messengers (1989–1991), large studies of sculptures and art illustrations that incorporate the movement of the camera. Within This Garden: Photographs by Ruth Thorne-Thomsen accompanied her exhibition of the same title, which was published by The Museum of Contemporary Photography in association with Aperture.

Jim Fitts has been a creative director, print and web designer, art director, teacher, and collector of fine art photography for over 40 years.  He taught at Curry College, Mount Ida College School of Design, and the Boston University College of Communications. He held the position of Executive Director of the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University, as well as the position of Executive Creative Director at Avenue, Inc. in Chicago and Creative Director at Euro RSCG 4D in Boston.

Jim has curated photography exhibitions for the PRC/MIT Gallery as well as exhibitions at the Panopticon Gallery in Boston. He has served as a reviewer for the Photolucida portfolio reviews and the FotoFest portfolio reviews. He was instrumental in the publishing of Harold Feinstein – A Retrospective, which PDN magazine called one of the best photo books of the year.

Idalia Vasquez-Achury is a Colombian-born, Philadelphia-based lens media artist and educator. Exploring performance, installation, and photography, her practice centers on the Latinx diaspora, delving into physical and mental spaces of transition and perpetual becoming. Her multidisciplinary practice includes photography, artist books, and large-scale photographic installations. In 2023, Idalia was selected for the 97th Annual at The Print Center in Philadelphia, where she was awarded a solo exhibition. That same year, she received the Blake Bradford Fitler Club Artist-in-Residence Award. In 2024, she was part of the Wind Challenge Exhibition Series. Her work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions at The Print Center, Fleisher Art Memorial, and Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia, PA; Candela Books + Gallery in VA; Scarab Club Gallery and 555 Gallery in MI; Photo Place Gallery in VT; and Casa Sin Fin in Bogotá, Colombia, among others. Her works are held in the collections of the Forman Arts Initiative and Temple University’s Charles Library. Idalia holds an MFA in Photography from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University. She currently teaches photography at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University and Arcadia University.

Shikeith (b. 1989; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). With a complex multidisciplinary practice, Shikeith interrogates the sociopolitical structures and histories that oppress the psychological landscapes of marginalized communities. Influenced by his interest in hauntology and spiritual traditions from the African diaspora, Shikeith’s artwork both mines and speculates on methodologies of disentangling and reconciliation. His photographs employ magical realist aesthetics, creating elusive compositions, challenging gender norms, and asking viewers to engage with the invisible forces that shape their perception of the subjects depicted and themselves. Shikeith earned a BA in Integrative Arts from the Pennsylvania State University and a MFA from the Yale School of Art in New Haven, Connecticut. He currently resides and works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.