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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Sixty Nine: How to make expressive photographs in “bad” light > Advertisement, Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona, 2009
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29-APR-2009

Advertisement, Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona, 2009

A series of huge photo mural advertisements, each featuring an ASU student, extends along the wall of one of the buildings on the University’s new Phoenix campus. All but one of them was in full mid-morning sunlight. Partially shaded by a well placed tree, that was the one I chose to photograph. The smiling student on that mural seemed to be incongruously laughing at the branch just under her nose. I waited for an actual student to walk below the huge mural – and caught her animated hand gesture as she entered the frame. The overall image is well shaded by the tree, which creates humor, incongruity, pattern, and shadow. With a little help from nature itself, a potentially flat image becomes alive with vitality.

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Phil Douglis02-May-2009 21:33
A wonderful new word for my photographic approach, Rose: "Philiness." Thank you. And yes, I am playing the prankster here by tickling the woman's nose with the tree branch, applying a leafy beard to her chin, and letting the young student seem to take delight in both.
sunlightpix02-May-2009 20:06
It's alive with humor and incongruity. Your composition with the tree makes it seem like its a prankster, painting a moustache and beard on the lady. Phil + silliness = "Philiness"
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