PHILADELPHIA -- A tall, young man carrying a camera stopped two young ladies strolling down South Street one recent afternoon.

“Would you mind if I took a photograph of you together?” the man politely asked the friends.

This being Philly, you can imagine what the response might have been. But instead there was the spark of recognition.

“South Street Sam!” exclaimed Caroline Rybak, 19, of Germantown.

“Hell yeah!” said her friend Olivia McKiernan, 19, from Southwest, enthusiastically.

Within seconds, the shooter was showing them their smiling images and telling them where they could access them later — his Instagram page @southstreetsam. It’s part of a one-man, walking documentary — ambitious and ever-evolving — of life on this most Philly of streets.

“I think it’s cool,” McKiernan said. “There’s so many kinds of people on this street on any given day, and to be able to document that is really cool.”

Welcome to the South Street journey of Sami Aziz, a native son whose immigrant family roots grow deep in this iconic Philly promenade. About six months ago, Aziz, 29, embarked on a street photography project to capture the diversity and spirit of this ever-changing street. He hopes to continue for a full year.

Every afternoon, rain or shine, he’s out photographing anyone and everyone who will let him — and they almost all do. He is always courteous, respectful. He figures he’s created over 60,000 images — families, merchants, little kids, lovers kissing, punk girls with green hair, you name it. His Instagram page has grown to nearly 100,000 followers. One video alone of a little boy pretending to be Spider-Man got 3.7 million views.

Aziz knows the street has had its problems in recent years, and its fortunes have seen ebbs and flows over the decades. But the South Street that Aziz sees through his lens is a place of promise and potential.

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