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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty-Five: Using clouds to imply meaning > Civic Center, Denver, Colorado, 2007
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05-JUL-2007

Civic Center, Denver, Colorado, 2007

I loved the way the evening sky reflects in the windows of this office building. However, it is the various kinds of clouds and their relationship to the building that that make this image so expressive. I create a three-panel wideangle image, squeezing an overcast cloudscape between the left hand edge of the frame and the building. The clouds continue to flow in an almost liquid-like reflection across the face of the office building in the middle panel, and then float free again in the panel between the building and the right hand edge of the frame. The building functions as a giant strainer – processing the clouds from dense to thin as they flow from left to right.

Leica D-Lux 3
1/400s f/8.0 at 18.0mm iso100 full exif

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Phil Douglis03-Jul-2008 19:33
Thanks, Jen, for seeing the surreal nature of the building itself -- a structure which, because of my framing, has no top or bottom. It offers us a blend of the man-made and natural worlds, superimposed upon each other. This blend is full of mysteries -- it asks us to wonder where the realms of man ends and the realm of nature begins.
Jennifer Zhou03-Jul-2008 15:40
Clods reflects on an office building is a common subject for photographers, but this image is quite special to me, because the building doesn't look like a building at all, it is surreal, it is a piece concentrateing the power of nature and the power of man. And your framing makes it even more mysterious --- we don't see where it comes from and where it goes to. You make us wonder...as you always do..
Phil Douglis13-Oct-2007 15:44
Thanks, Yannick -- I'm glad you like the concept behind this image.
yannick Beunard13-Oct-2007 09:44
Brilliant !
Phil Douglis13-Aug-2007 00:45
Glad you came to this image, Kal. As you know, I like your own juxtaposition of similar subjects -- clouds and office buildings -- athttp://www.pbase.com/shangheye/image/83721995 The clouds seem to invade the domain of man in both of our images - in yours as a dream, and in mine as a "cloud strainer."
Kal Khogali12-Aug-2007 21:45
I had not seen this before. Quite monolithic, and I like the space age feel of the building. The darkness of the reflection to the left is also sinister against that bright blue sky...a strainer indeed. K
Phil Douglis15-Jul-2007 00:11
A stack of ice cubes, full of memories. I like your view of this image, and I also enjoyed the comparison to your own. You are right -- in this case, man seems to be processing nature. And in your case, mankind is indeed intrusive. And thanks, too, for noting the density of this image in places, which contrasts strongly to the portions that seem to be translucent.
Tim May14-Jul-2007 22:18
I love the way your exposure makes for a denseness. The building seems like a stack of ice cubes. And because of their darkness, they seem to be holding memories. I took a similar image in Boston http://www.pbase.com/mityam/image/77028385 . You image seems to me to be about nature and structure relating, while mine seems to be about man's structure intruding into nature.
Phil Douglis11-Jul-2007 18:21
Thanks, Celia and Mo. I love the way each of you have interpreted this image. One of you sees the building as a huge magnifier to better see and understand the natural world, while the other sees nature overwhelming even the best technology that man can devise. And that was exactly why I made this image -- to make my viewers think about the relationship between man and nature.
monique jansen11-Jul-2007 14:19
A metaphor for the lack of importance of our cherished buildings to the power of nature. Lack of importance in the long run and nature will just find a way...
Cecilia Lim11-Jul-2007 13:04
I see a very scientific metaphor for this amazing illusion Phil. Each of the glass windows appear like they are vibrating - like energized atoms and molecules shifting, changing all around us. It is as if you have placed the clouds under super powerful magnification, allowing us to see on a microscopic level the very building blocks that make up the world around us. Amazing!
Phil Douglis11-Jul-2007 05:38
Snakeskin! I knew it looked familiar. Thanks, Jenene, for bringing that metaphor to bear on this image. I'm also glad you see the role that the liquidness of the reflection plays in transforming one kind of cloud into another. This image reminds me of a massive magic trick, only it was not magic at work here. It was a blending of nature, architecture, technology and photography at work.
JSWaters11-Jul-2007 03:38
Strainer indeed! This building's facade looks like a giant snakeskin that passes over objects and assumes their identity. It's the liquidness of the glass that's so odd - as if a reflection of the giant processor it's become.
Jenene
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