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

Triumph, Phoenix, Arizona, 2009

Making a picture of a person at noon on a sunny day is a disaster waiting to happen. The overhead sun will create dark pockets around the eyes and harshly shadow the planes of the face – just as it does to this statue. However a statue is not a person – it does not have to be flattered. It is a work of sculpture, and has, in fact, been sculpted twice, once by the sculptor, and again by the harsh mid-day light. Its chest, nose, a bit of the face, and the hair – along with the edge of the upraised arm and the hand – emerge from the shadows that cloak the rest of it. It offers a gesture of triumph, and the harsh shadows here can symbolize struggle and difficulty, and thus make that gesture more meaningful than if we saw the entire statue in even light. The gilded window supports and the thrusts within the overhang of the office building echo the statue’s symbolic gesture.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1
1/1250s f/11.0 at 45.0mm iso1000 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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