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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Thirty Three: Using light and color to define and contrast textures > Crushed Boiler, The Boneyard, Amboy, California, 2006
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11-FEB-2006

Crushed Boiler, The Boneyard, Amboy, California, 2006

I created this image of a sun-kissed, crushed and rusting boiler as a metaphor symbolizing the end of the age of steam power. It is a virtual map of textures. The boiler itself is a smooth and silky golden color, except for streaks of rust and a long row of round industrial rivets. The deep red hollow indentation is abstracted – its texture can only be imagined, not seen. The light red crushed ridge of metal is a texture in itself – we can almost feel the damage with our fingers. The shadowed area on the far left of the picture is seriously rusted, offering a coarse and unforgiving texture. The boiler no longer works. It is in a junkyard, and has become essentially irrelevant. No matter how sensuous its texture and color maybe, it, like the age of steam it represents, is gone forever.

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Phil Douglis16-Sep-2006 21:37
Thanks, Gil, for assuring me that the age of steam is still very much alive and well and saving money, at least in the industrial settings you are visiting these days as a corporate photographer. Glad you like this boiler -- I saw human qualities in it as well - to me it is a wound, but instead of spilling blood, it exudes rust. A metaphor for the end of the industrial age, which, at least to many observers, has been overwhelmed by the information age.
Gil Hidalgo16-Sep-2006 12:39
Phil, what impacts me, about this picture, is how I see a deformed face profile. The top left corner has an ear and the rest of the profile is melting, as if the boiler and the face are one and therefor, the melting took place. It has a touch of Dali and VanGogh like the melting clock and long faces they have been so well known for painting.
As an added note, I am sad to tell you that steam poswer is still very much alive and saving money for power generation. Boilers at power plants are still in use and new construction is on the way. I should know, I have spent weeks in Mexico inside many of these dirty, rusty looking places. And that' just the hotels I sstayed in! (True in both cases, and in good humor!)
Gil
Phil Douglis01-Sep-2006 23:59
So many evocative comments here, Ceci, and now yours joins them. The re-integration of all life -- a perfect summation of this image. Well seen, and well said. Thank you.
Guest 01-Sep-2006 22:39
Gorgeous hues, molten shapes, a downward slide of seemingly tough stuff -- mined from the land and formed to human service -- slowly disintegrating and "melting" in its inexorable return to the earth. A metaphor on natural recycling, and the re-integration of all life. Beautiful, graceful and poignant, Phil!
Phil Douglis10-Mar-2006 21:13
Thanks for the eloquent comment, Celia. This image does pull at the heart. It is an epitaph for an era.
Cecilia Lim10-Mar-2006 10:31
The proud shiny face of strength and service is no more. Crushed and bleeding red, this image tugs at our hearts like a Shakespearen tale of romance and tragedy, played out in form, texture and colour.
Phil Douglis20-Feb-2006 16:56
Thanks, Lisa, for this wonderful comment. I have always told my students that it is not WHAT we shoot that matters, but rather HOW we shoot it, and WHY we shoot it. As you say, this image is a case in point.
Guest 20-Feb-2006 15:50
Oh yes. I agree, like silk and like some kind of organic matter. It just says to me that everything is light, this old machine has contained and been transformed by the power of light/shade, texture and shadow. When anyone says "i don't know what to take a picture of, there is nothing here....." well, show them this.
Phil Douglis19-Feb-2006 20:41
Thanks, Xin, for adding these thoughts. Yes, I thought of silk as I took this image. The texture of the metal and rust, in this kind of light, has a silky feeling to it. It is a very sensuous image as well -- it is full of energy, yet it invites our touch at the same time. Yet, incongruously, this boiler is dead, discarded, left here in the desert to disintegrate.
Sheena Xin Liu19-Feb-2006 06:32
I am simply moved by the flow of the texture shown in this image, Phil. In this picture, the texture is dynamic, it's flowing and glowing. You could hardly imagine the texture of a piece of silky cloth can pronounce its presence in the body of the iron. Beautifully done.
Phil Douglis18-Feb-2006 03:17
It is a delight to have you both comment on this image within a few hours of each other. I know how much you both value beauty, even in things that are ugly. This image would have equally at home in my "Opposites and Contradictions" Gallery http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/opposites) since this smashed boiler once was an industrial work horse -- as was the entire age of steam power. And yes, Kal, I see symbolic beauty in the textures of your furnace image as well. This picture of the crushed boiler is one of my favorite images, and I learned a great deal from making it. I am glad you both find meaning in it that goes beyond the surface.
Kal Khogali18-Feb-2006 01:34
I agree with Tim...I like to think of machines as alive, and that as with all things they grow more mature and beautiful with age...even in death...there is beauty. Reminds me in concept of this, where I was trying to bring texture to bearhttp://www.pbase.com/shangheye/image/54257021 K
Tim May17-Feb-2006 23:21
I have waited to try to comment on this image because it not only touches my mind, it also touches my heart. I think the reason for this is that you have made erosion and aging beautiful. The end of steam and the end of life are, in their ways, ugly. But a life well lived and steam well used had moments of beauty - it is good to remember that.
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