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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty-Eight: Telling stories with pictures > The other side of the Taj, Agra, India, 2008
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27-MAR-2008

The other side of the Taj, Agra, India, 2008

Few foreign visitors take the time to visit the park just across the Yamuna River from the Taj Mahal. At sunset, only a handful of people were here to enjoy the view of its backside, while thousands of tourists were over on its front side. From here it looks like a back yard ornament -- an exotic guest cottage. This wideangle view of the Taj Mahal makes it seem just another part of Agra, no longer an enclosed monument unto itself. It becomes less of “wonder of the world” and more of what makes India India. That is the story I try to tell with this image.

Leica D-Lux 3
1/640s f/8.0 at 6.3mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis22-Jun-2008 18:29
Thanks for seeing the humor in this shot, Ceci. My vantage point has created a scale relationship that vastly reduces the size of the immense Taj Mahal. It does offer a comedic twist -- few buildings demand our gaze as insistently as the Taj Mahal, yet these men are so familiar with it that they do not even seem to look at it any more.
Guest 22-Jun-2008 07:03
This is a very cool shot, with conked out nappers & yakkers flopped on the grass in the foreground of the Taj -- reducing it to something the size of a treehouse, when in fact it is so huge that it stuns visitors who -- like me in 1963 -- approach. It is such a perfectly designed and balanced structure that its sheer immensity is not apparent until you get right up to it, and they you nearly break your neck gaping up at it. This tranquil scene of resting men has powerfully shrunk the great tomb of Mumtaz i Mahal to a postage stamp. An almost comedic situation, and so typical of India.
Phil Douglis08-Jun-2008 23:53
You are right, Han -- it does. And that is what makes this image so incongruous. Here is one of the world's greatest architectural and historical treasures reduced to a casual backyard ornament. As you say, it looks like a miniature theme park compared the people relaxing in the foreground, who I've rendered as tall as the Taj itself.
Guest 08-Jun-2008 20:41
taj mahal looks like a theme part miniature in this photo
Phil Douglis09-May-2008 03:27
Thanks, Vera, for seeing this image as I intended it to be seen. I wanted you to see the most famous building in India the way its neighbors would see it. I'm sure they are proud of it, but being so familiar with it, they see it as a matter of course, rather than as a realization of a life long dream.
Guest 09-May-2008 01:36
What a wonderful photo of the Taj Mahal, unlike any I have seen before. I have always thought of it from the perspective of the tourist. Until this picture I have never stepped back to look at it as it is seen by those who live and work around it. You bring us into their world....
Vera
Phil Douglis04-May-2008 19:42
That was the point of my story, Tim. When we become familiar with a place, such as our own neighborhood, we tend to take its special qualities for granted. To these people, this quiet park is a worthy destination. The back of the Taj, over there on the other side of the river, is just background eye candy for them. Meanwhile, thousands of tourists stand in long lines to gape at the front of the Taj just a mile or so away -- a place they have never seen before and may never see again.
Tim May04-May-2008 18:38
On the other side the tourist are lined up mouthes agape - here the people are ho-hum.
Phil Douglis01-May-2008 17:50
Thanks, Alina, for appreciating the incongruities here, as well as the beauty.
Alina01-May-2008 11:20
Unusual and beautiful view of Taj Mahal. I like the story too.
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