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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Ninety-five: Back to the beach -- finding new stories in familiar subjects > Alone, Mission Beach, California, 2015
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02-SEP-2015

Alone, Mission Beach, California, 2015

The final picture in this five-picture “balcony” sequence is quite different from the other four. This time, I do not shoot someone coming towards me. We can’t see who this man is, but rather we come to understand what he represents as a symbol. He is an abstracted figure, seemingly walking in private, rather than in public. He walks away from us, enveloped by the shadowy wall and the shadow it casts on the boardwalk itself. His hat is pulled down over his head. He wears all black, and he looks down as he walks at a carefully measured pace. The sun illuminates only his hat and his fingers. Strong diagonal lines echo his journey from both sides. The tire tracks on the sand and the stone boardwalk wall itself seem to guide him from the left. Meanwhile, the shadow of the wall, as well as the double yellow and black dividing lines in the middle of the boardwalk, trace his progress from the right. He may walk alone with his thoughts, yet all who view this image are encouraged to follow along as well.

FujiFilm X-T1
1/450s f/22.0 at 230.0mm iso640 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis26-Apr-2019 20:47
Thanks for being the first to comment on this image, which has now been posted here for nearly four years. It is always a great pleasure to hear from you and to add your elegant commentary to the treasury of comments on my images that infuse this cyberbook on visual expression with meaning. You amplify the essence of what I've said here in my caption, and then you take it beyond. As you say, this a capture of solitary walk, a walk we often take ourselves, alone in mind and body, even when surrounded by thousands. Thank you again for coming to this image.
BleuEvanescence25-Apr-2019 07:19
I really like this picture Phil.
The man, and its thin shadow are the only breaking lines, all the others, on both sides of the concrete wall are in perfect parallel and in diagonale... The thin shadow echoes the light through the wall. What a nice rendez-vous of geometry here ! 45 degrees for the man and his shadow...
The yellowish lines remind me of the colour of some sand...but here, the sand mimics the walk path...
Wonderful capture of a solitary walk... Eventhough there is a lot of people around us, we often are in that kind of solitary walk ourselves...
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