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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Five: Using the frame to define ideas > Ancient locomotive, Swakopmund, Namibia, 2002
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14-DEC-2002

Ancient locomotive, Swakopmund, Namibia, 2002

On the outskirts of this Victorian city sits this steam locomotive, brought to Namibia in 1896 to haul freight. It broke down in the desert, never to run again. Riddled with holes from the blowing sand, locals irreverently named this the "Martin Luther" locomotive, alluding to the German religious reformers famous statement made at Worms in 1527 -- "Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise." Even though this locomotive has not budged for over 100 years, I wanted still to imply that it was originally meant to move. Instead of photographing the whole locomotive, I chop it in half with the right edge of the frame, forcing it to seem as if it was steaming into my picture, while a line of waving palms in the background cheer it on. My horizontal cropping echoes the thrust of those trees mocking the intransigent locomotive.

Canon PowerShot G2
1/640s f/7.1 at 7.0mm full exif

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Phil Douglis31-Dec-2004 20:59
Another insightful observation from friend Clara. You are not a contrarian. You simply have bent those palms to blow your own message to the world. Nature vs. artifice is a wonderful concept. You always manage to find things in my images that go beyond anything I could dream of. You are the perfect interpreter, Clara. You find universal meaning in all of my pictures.
Guest 31-Dec-2004 15:13
I find the incongrous element rather evident and present. To me, contrary to you, the palms seem want to run away from the machine, which appears quite threatening. Nature vs Artifice.
Phil Douglis12-Nov-2004 03:03
You are right, Larry. This is a somewhat ambiguous image. It is the waving palm trees that seem to imply motion. The train itself is obviously not going anywhere, fast! Wonderful incongruity you point out re the bike technology outlasting the steam powered technology.
Guest 12-Nov-2004 02:44
I like this picture as long as I don't look too closely at it...you wanted to portray motion, but the locomotive's tracks abrubtly end just a couple of feet in front of it. And it took me a minute to realize I was looking at the front of the locomotive instead of the back.

At least the bicycle leaning against the far-right palm tree isn't "mobility impaired." It's interesting that this simple, human-powered form of transportation is still functioning and in-use without any significant technological changes, while the steam-powered machine is just a rusting hulk.
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