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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty One: Ruins and wrecks: photographing the rusted, busted past > Discarded, Rhyolite, Nevada, 2007
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22-FEB-2007

Discarded, Rhyolite, Nevada, 2007

The largest ghost town in Death Valley, Rhyolite is littered with rusted household items and ruined buildings. The twin frames of this rusting bedspring echo the twin walls of a ruined bank that stands bleakly in the distance. The bedspring dips to the right, just as the ruins do. By juxtaposing the bedspring with the ruins of the bank, I am able to create a symbolic relationship that tells a more complete story than by showing only the distant ruins.

Leica V-Lux 1
1/500s f/5.6 at 15.0mm iso100 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time22-Feb-2007 08:00:42
MakeLeica
ModelV-LUX 1
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length15 mm
Exposure Time1/500 sec
Aperturef/5.6
ISO Equivalent100
Exposure Bias-0.33
White Balance
Metering Modemulti spot (3)
JPEG Quality
Exposure Programprogram (2)
Focus Distance

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Phil Douglis05-Jun-2009 19:05
Thanks, Algis, for calling this an epic image. By definition, an epic image is one that evokes heroic or legendary tales. The old west is indeed a place of legends, and heroism as well.
Algis Kemezys05-Jun-2009 03:32
Such an epic image...V
Phil Douglis30-Jun-2007 19:45
Thanks, morbius, for your amusing perspective here. You show us how powerful the imagination can be in reading a picture. Those of us who actually visited Rhyolite knew that the town was abandoned and gradually fell to pieces and that bed was simply rusting litter. Without that context, you are free to assume that the building suddenly blew up, and sent that bed flying into the sky. And so the image can tell you a story quite different from the one I intended to tell. When I look at this image now, my imagination easily pictures those flying springs as well.
morbius30-Jun-2007 07:27
I love this. Looks like the bed landed there when the house blew up.
Phil Douglis11-May-2007 03:53
Yes -- there are similarities. The twisted girders and gutted structure, mute reminders of what once was life and now is death. You can see my own interpretation of the A-Dome in Hiromshima athttp://www.pbase.com/image/58759156 which uses the sun to symbolize the explosive force of the atom.
Guest 11-May-2007 01:06
This image reminds of the emotions triggered when I first saw the A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima. Remnants of life and death everywhere.
Phil Douglis18-Mar-2007 23:30
You are right, Jenene -- the bed springs humanize this image, by adding a humble, human touch. They are a fragile reminder, as you note, of those who once pursued a dream here on the godforsaken fringes of Death Valley.
JSWaters18-Mar-2007 18:24
To expand on Tim's comment a little - I find the remnants of humanity represented by the rusted bedsprings. They give validity to the past when people actually lived here - something that remains mainly an abstraction when you view only a ruined building from afar.
Jenene
Phil Douglis03-Mar-2007 20:50
I owe a debt of gratitude to you, Tim, for calling my attention to this bedspring in the first place. I agree -- both the springs and the bank are left in ruin, and we both saw the echoes in form here as well.
Tim May03-Mar-2007 19:29
I, too, love the twinness of this image - It seems to me a picture of the completeness of the ruins - the buildings and their contents are in ruin.
Phil Douglis02-Mar-2007 23:08
That's what I thought, too, Christine. Those "roller coaster" ups and downs, and the ups and downs of the ruined bank in the background, make the shot work.
Christine P. Newman02-Mar-2007 20:32
At first, it looks like a rusty roller coaster.
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