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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty-Nine: Creating an echo with rhythm and pattern > Memorials, Cheng Hoon Teng Temple, Malacca, Malaysia, 2007
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02-SEP-2007

Memorials, Cheng Hoon Teng Temple, Malacca, Malaysia, 2007

Rows of memorial tablets commemorate the dead at this old temple. Typically, such tablets are elaborate tributes. This group, however, is not. The tablets are simple blocks of inscribed wood. Photographs of the dead are often tucked in next to them. An accidental fire has singed and discolored both the tablets and the photographs. I layer this image by anchoring it with three haunting, badly discolored memorial photographs. The rhythmic repetition of the tablets moves the eye back to a second layer and three more photographs with smaller, less distinct detail. The third layer contains more repetitive rows of tablets, gradually fading into soft focus. The rhythms create a pattern that symbolizes the inevitable. This haunted image reminds us that life and death is a continuous process, without end.

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Phil Douglis05-Jul-2008 22:13
Thanks, Celia, for contrasting this image to the one that you made of the same subject. We made our images within moments of each other, yet we each have different stories to tell. Your comment validates my contention that subject matter itself is not the most important component of a photograph. Rather, it is how we choose to make the picture, and what we choose to say about that subject, that leads to photographic meaning. You chose to tell a poignant story of a happy life that is no more, while I intended this image to symbolize the inevitability of death as a part of life.
Cecilia Lim05-Jul-2008 21:44
Phil, your image is such a great contrast to mine which tells the story of one of the individuals remembered (http://www.pbase.com/cecilialim/image/98082076 ), whereas yours expresses the subject of death itself. The endless repetition of the memorial tablets reminds us again and again that death is inevitable. You also include some memorial photos that have been burnt so badly, we don't even see their faces anymore. Again you stress the point of the fragility of our existence. What an evocative image this is! You tell a a very haunting story that makes us deal with the reality of life & death.
Phil Douglis15-Oct-2007 22:41
Your substantive commentary adds much to an appreciation of this image, Tim. Photographs can overcome the limits imposed by memory. They remind us of moments long past, and prod the imagination to bring them to life once again. In this image, we see photographs of six people who were once alive, loved ones who cry out here to be remembered. They may be discolored by fire, yet each of them can recall a life to those who knew these people. My own image places them in the context of a continuing flow of tablets -- rhythmically repeating themselves from edge to edge of the frame, implying that like the cycle of life and death itself, the process of remembrance will repeat itself forever. Thanks, Tim, for seeing this as a metaphor for the art of photography itself. As photographic artists we have the power to help others recall, remember, think, feel, and imagine lives that have ended, and in our own way make them seem to live once more.
Tim May15-Oct-2007 18:11
So often we make images of remembrances - but as we have photographed cemeteries throughout the world it is clear that the attempts to remember in stone, or wood, or paper gradually fade as the rememberers also pass. Yet, we come by years later and post those memorials on an international forum such as this. But, since we did not know these people we are memorializing remembering and the cycle of life. To some extent that is a metaphor for our art. Photographic images are partly an attempt to freeze in time a scene and an emotion. Most of what me "capture" will probably not live on for generations, but by causing the viewer to stop for a moment or two and see our moments, maybe their lives will be minutely richer.
Phil Douglis06-Oct-2007 21:52
Some of these wooden tablets are illuminated by candles, placed there by family mourners. In fact, it was a candle that caused the accidental fire that charred all of these tablets. You are right -- it is about the cycle of life and the inevitability of death.
JSWaters06-Oct-2007 05:50
I don't understand the light that illuminates the portraits of the dead here. I think I see hidden light, and I wouldn't discount that summarily, but you don't mention it, so I question what I am actually seeing. However you've made this, it is an image symbolizing the life/death process, in all its inevitability.
Jenene
Phil Douglis29-Sep-2007 23:34
Thanks, Jeff, for making this point. Rhythm for its own sake does not make for expression. Rather, it is how and why those rhythms work that will determine an image's success as expression. Yes, these tablets draw us back, layer by layer, into the image. But it is what we discover in those pictures and on those tablets along the way that makes this image speak.
Guest 29-Sep-2007 07:56
This is a very powerful photograph for me. I think the sharp focus showing the detail and writing on the blocks of wood combined with the faded photographs create a pleasing contrast that goes well to emphasize the rhythm your pointing out.
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