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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Thirty Nine: Juxtaposition – compare and contrast for meaning > Photographer, Lookout Studio, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, 2007
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07-AUG-2007

Photographer, Lookout Studio, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, 2007

Photography at the Grand Canyon is overwhelmingly difficult, at best. The subject is best worked at dawn or twilight, when light and shadow sculpt the massive rock formations into coherent forms. It is a vast subject – almost two three hundred miles long – yet most of us are limited by time to shooting the canyon from a relatively few well known vantage points. In this case, a photographer is shooting the canyon at sunset from the stone viewing porch of the Lookout Studio, which was built in the early 20th century as a gift shop/lookout point. The great American Southwestern architect Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter designed it to harmonize with its setting. I juxtaposed this photographer working from the stone terrace of Lookout Studio, against the enormous bulk of the reddish rock looming before him from the canyon floor. He is small, and his task is large. He has a challenge before him – he must somehow avoid copying an image he has seen time and time again. He must find new life in an old idea. And that is the story I am trying to tell with this juxtaposition.

Leica V-Lux 1
1/400s f/8.0 at 32.5mm iso100 full exif

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Phil Douglis26-Aug-2007 17:42
Thanks, Vera -- everyone who visits the Grand Canyon will make at least one "postcard" picture, if just for the memories. But expressive photographers will do whatever they can to go beyond the postcard to make a photograph that says something, instead of just showing something. One of the ways to do this is tell a story -- in this case, a story about a man trying to make a picture that goes beyond the postcard! By making use of scale incongruity and the abstraction caused by a setting sun, I am able to do in my image what he is trying to do in his: breathe new life into an old idea.
veraferia26-Aug-2007 13:07
Wonderful! It is not a simply postcard...
Phil Douglis15-Aug-2007 16:29
You are right, Mo. In the face of such a sight, we come to realize our own insignificance. Perhaps this why he is making that photograph -- to acquire a least a touch of personal significance by making a deeply moving image of what he sees before him.
monique jansen15-Aug-2007 06:30
A story well told!
The insignificance of the human race in front of nature's magnificence, is another thing I see in this one
Phil Douglis12-Aug-2007 18:19
Thanks, Iris, for your appreciation of the story I am telling with this juxtaposition. Cliches are comforting -- they offer instant success that can be compelling. Yet we owe it to ourselves and to our viewers to try to go beyond them -- to find a new way of looking at an old idea. Here we have a picture of man making a picture of one of the most famous views in the world. Yet through juxtaposition in space and scale, I've tried to give us something to think about as well as look at.
Phil Douglis12-Aug-2007 18:15
The layering, Alina, gives the image its sense of depth and perspective. And as you know, there are few subjects in the world with the depth potential of the Grand Canyon. And yes, evening light here is very special. It puts the great rock formations of the canyon into relief and warms them in color at the same time.
Iris Maybloom (irislm)12-Aug-2007 16:58
As always, you have found "new life in an old idea". It is hard sometimes not to succumb to the cliche because the cliche can be so compelling, but the challenge of finding new life in an old idea can be so creatively and mentally stimulating. Thank you for helping me understand that.
Alina12-Aug-2007 11:35
You capture gorgeous evening light in Grand Canyon. My eye is moving from layer to layer on that beautiful photo.
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