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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Ninety-two: Cruising the Inland Passage from Charleston to Jacksonville > Cop at work, Jacksonville, Florida, 2014
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30-NOV-2014

Cop at work, Jacksonville, Florida, 2014

I made this photograph on sheer instinct, without any thought or pre-planning. I saw a small child, looking somewhat vulnerable and bewildered, crossing a downtown intersection. Another family member was walking ahead of her, and was well out of the frame when I made this image. A Jacksonville policeman, pencil and paper in hand, was working on another task at this street corner when he suddenly turned to watch this child cross the street. My cropped image takes the scene out of its context. The child now appears to be alone and possibly lost or confused. The cop seems to have stopped everything to keep an eagle eye on this kid. Did he? I leave such interpretation to the viewer. I converted the image from color to black and white to intensify the photojournalistic context.

FujiFilm X-T1
1/400s f/14.0 at 230.0mm iso800 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time30-Nov-2014 10:15:43
MakeFujiFilm
ModelX-T1
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length230 mm
Exposure Time1/400 sec
Aperturef/14
ISO Equivalent800
Exposure Bias-0.33
White Balance
Metering Mode
JPEG Quality
Exposure Program
Focus Distance

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Phil Douglis09-May-2015 20:36
As I say in my caption, I made this image so that every viewer could have a chance to bring their own interpretation to the policeman's intentions here. Thanks for weighing in.
Tim May08-May-2015 22:12
I am on the side that the officer is not guarding the child - he seems more to be watching the family members that have gone on ahead.
Phil Douglis18-Mar-2015 20:14
You make a good point, Iris. My crop here was critical, and it was the point of the picture itself, and of my posting it here. I use this image to demonstrate how a simple crop can force a viewer to make up his or her own mind about what is happening in an image. It becomes an image about a cop's responsibility towards what appears to be a vulnerable child. I could have made an entirely different point by including the other family member who was walking ahead of this child. When we are framing an image, we must always consider the story we are trying to tell.
Iris Maybloom (irislm)16-Mar-2015 22:07
Your crop here certainly provides a significantly different slant on this scene and does open it up to interpretation. How many times are photos altered solely with the idea of altering and/or manipulating our perception. You explained what you did. However, this often is not the case.
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