"How would you describe race relations in Philadelphia?" As part of his internship for the Metro, a popular daily newspaper, Cody is trying to find out how people feel about race. With a notebook, a pencil and a camera, he hits the city streets to interview strangers. 
Photographing the respondents is another part of his daily assignment. Cody is taking a picture of a Center City resident on 16th and Walnut St.
Cody at a weekly budget meeting with other editors at the Temple News office.
Besides being an Out and About editor, Cody writes articles and accomplishes photo assignments for the Temple News. A photo of the Italian Market that he took is featured in the latest issue.
Cody at the beginning of his solo dance piece for his Introduction to Dance class at Pearson Hall.
"I think there are four guys in my dance class," Cody says. "And like... twenty girls!" Cody is watching his classmate perform her dance solo.
After a meeting at the Temple News office, Cody rode his bike back to his apartment at 1728 Girard Ave. for a quick meal. Cody's bike helps him to commute between Metro's office in Center City, Temple Main campus in North Philadelphia, his apartment and photo assignments all over the city.
Although Cody mentioned he was not a good cook, he surprised me with a quick meal of meatballs and pasta with marinara sauce.
"Fight of the Century!" An amateur boxing match between 140-pound Cody Glenn and 220-pound Andrew Franklin (aka Frank) in their apartment. About 30 people got together on a Saturday night to drink beer and watch the fight. Round 1.
The End. Cody was knocked down in Round 4. Fellow Temple News photographer Max Levine is photographing Cody on the floor.
Empty beer bottles...
...and cigarette butts remain on Cody's roof deck after the party is over.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hi, my name is Cody. I work for the Metro..."
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“Hi, my name is Cody. I work for the Metro. Can I ask you a question for the Debate section? OK. So the question for today is: “How do you feel about race relations in Philadelphia?”
Cody Glenn, a 21-year-old photojournalism student at Temple University, is interning at the Metro, a popular daily newspaper in Philadelphia. His assignment for today is to talk to people in the Center City area and find out what they think about racial relations in the city: are there any tensions, do people respect each other’s differences. Cody has to write down their answers, as well as respondent’s name, age, occupation and the neighborhood where he or she lives. Finally, he needs to take a head shot of the person.
The weather is nice, and around 1 p.m. we go out to the City Hall area to interview people.
“It’s always important to keep diversity in mind,” Cody says as he approaches two middle-aged African American women. One of them is reluctant to talk, while the other is interested in being featured in the paper. Cody takes out his notebook and a pencil and starts writing down the woman’s answer. Then he quickly takes her head shot and off we go to find more respondents.
Contrary to my expectations, most people are willing to talk. A lot of them seem to care about racial issues. Some don’t know what to say. Two thirteen-year-old girls ask Cody to take their picture. They are thrilled to find out that it is going to be in the paper the next day.
Cody talks to a thirty-year-old Center City accountant, a young man living in Fishtown, an African American couple. He says that people are not always as friendly and willing to talk as today. He mentions that on cold days a lot of potential respondents do not even stop when he addresses them. “It gets pretty tough in winter,” Cody admits. After about half an hour, Cody hurries back to Metro’s office with his notes and photographs.
Cody likes his internship because he gets a chance to interact with people a lot, go out in the city streets and take pictures. He says that there are only around seven people working for Metro, and this is why he and the second intern, T.C. Mazar from Temple University, get a lot of assignments. Cody says it would be nice if he was offered a job at Metro afterwards, but in any case, this internship is a valuable experience. Job experience and life experience. Cody’s picture was featured on the front page of the Metro last week.
Besides the internship, Cody has been involved with production of the Temple News, an independent student newspaper. Although the atmosphere at the Temple News office is more relaxed and informal, students do serious work producing a weekly newspaper about the events on campus and in Philadelphia. Cody researches and writes articles, and takes photographs. He is one of the few writers at Temple News who usually takes photographs for his own articles. Besides, Cody is a copy editor for Out and About section, and has recently become a photo editor for this section. He spends several hours at the office every day meeting with writers and photographers, proofreading articles or researching. Monday is the day when the new issue of the newspaper is sent to print, and sometimes it gets pretty crazy and chaotic.
It is not easy to balance an internship, work for the Temple News and being a full-time student, but Cody seems to manage it all. He is taking two Photography classes this semester, Sociology, an on-line Racism in the News class and Introduction to Dance to fulfill Temple University Arts requirement. With such a busy schedule there is not much free time, but Cody likes it this way. “I’d rather be doing something all the time than… just be lazy, you know,” he explains.
To make commute easier between his internship in Center City, Temple Main campus in North Philadelphia and his apartment on 17th and Girard Ave., Cody usually rides his bike. It takes him only five minutes to get to class in the morning. The ride to Center City is longer, but Cody doesn’t mind. Cody’s neighborhood seems a little rough, but there are a lot of college students living around. “And it is close to Temple,” he adds.
Cody doesn’t usually have much time to cook and he says he is not so good at cooking, but when I visited his apartment at 1728 Girard Ave., he quickly fixed a meal of meatballs and pasta. The apartment that Cody shares with two roommates has a lot of character. Posters of his favorite musicians and photographs he took in the previous semesters are all over the walls.
Music seems to be an important part of Cody’s life. As I look through his collection of CDs, I notice Al Greene, Jay-Z, Bob Marley, The Beatles and Pink Floyd. Cody says that his favorite music style is Hip-Hop. This is why he attends The Gathering, a monthly event at Rotunda in West Philadelphia where young people get together for a night of Hip Hop, break dance and graffiti.
Cody is usually busy during the week, but on weekends he has some time to relax. As any college student, Cody likes to hang out with friends, drink beer and listen to music. Other things he enjoys doing in his free time are outdoor sports and hiking.
Sometimes Cody Glenn comes up with unusual ideas for a Saturday night. A few weeks ago, I saw a posting on Cody’s Facebook account about “A Fight of the Century”: an amateur boxing match between 140-pound Cody and his roommate Andrew Franklin (aka Frank) who is 220 pounds. For a five-dollar donation anyone could attend the event held at Cody’s apartment, get beers and pizza and watch the fight. I joined not quite knowing what to expect. It turned out o be much more bloody and violent than I thought. Cody was knocked down in Round 4 and I was terrified to see that his nose was bleeding.
In the few weeks that I spent with Cody, I realized how little I usually know about my classmates. I had no idea about how he spends his usual day, where he lives or what other classes he is taking. I hope that this project gives a glimpse of Cody’s life!
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