Walkers, Tecate, Mexico, 2004 by Phil Douglis

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19-APR-2004

Walkers, Tecate, Mexico, 2004

I always use my spot meter when shooting in strongly contrasting light. Here, I exposed the picture for the marble floor surrounding a bandstand in the center of Tecate's Hidalgo Plaza. This exposure retains color and detail in the marble while abstracting everything else in the picture. Using a 24mm wideangle converter lens, which offers very deep focusing, I shot from the bandstand as two people walked into my picture. The rhythmic pattern of the bandstand railing and the shadow of the bandstand’s circular roof create a curving path to propel these pedestrians through my frame. The degree of abstraction makes this picture work. Because one of these people is in silhouette and the other walks with his head down, they become abstractions symbolizing the ebb and flow of the pedestrian traffic that walks through this Plaza by and day and night.

Canon PowerShot G5
1/1250s f/4.5 at 7.2mm hide exif

Full EXIF Info
Date/Time	19-Apr-2004 00:21:08
Make	Canon
Model	PowerShot G5
Flash Used	No
Focal Length	7.2 mm
Exposure Time	1/1250 sec
Aperture	f/4.5
ISO Equivalent
Exposure Bias
White Balance	(-1)
Metering Mode	multi spot (3)
JPEG Quality	(6)
Exposure Program
Focus Distance

other sizes: small medium large original auto

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Guest		30-Sep-2005 13:38
From this photograph I gather that prison though not the best place for human beings, would always continue to exist until vices are done away with. As long as vice remains in our midst, there will always be prison. Also I would like folks out there to know that prison is not just a physical place but there is also the prison of the mind which is even much more serious than the physical prison.

Phil Douglis		28-Sep-2005 17:38
Thank you, Yaqub. If an American photographer can make an image of two men walking through a Mexican plaza express the road to freedom to a Nigerian viewer, the camera becomes, in effect, a tool for global understanding.

Yaqub adedeji		28-Sep-2005 15:38
Your picture tell a story so also those two people who walked into your picture.Their will be freedom one day.From Arisekola Ya"qub Adedeji,From Nigeria

Phil Douglis		17-Aug-2005 17:35
Once again you have given me new eyes to see an image with, Jude. I never noticed the optical illusion of the man who appears to be rising on the stairway, even though he actually walks on the plaza within the darkness of a shadow. I am glad you feel this image provokes thought as well -- I don't abstract as an exercise in form alone. I always hope to express an idea through the abstraction process. I think your concept of one man rising while the other plods behind him in dejection adds an entirely new dimension of meaning to this image for me. Thank you, Jude, once again, for your vision.

Jude Marion		17-Aug-2005 06:20
This is such a powerful image ... the use of shadow and light ... and the figures in shadow and light ... the one person has his head down - dejected? - the other has his raised and appears to be rising on the starway, yet he is in the dark of the shadows. I like the repetition of the curves and rails - the rhythm they create, to move us thru the image. Wonderfully thought provoking abstract.

Phil Douglis		14-Mar-2005 19:02
Yes, Dandan. You are correct. Color is reality. Black and white is abstraction, which often leads to symbolization. Go to my Black and White gallery athttp://www.pbase.com/pnd1/black_and_white and read my introduction -- it will elaborate on this for you.

Guest		14-Mar-2005 08:05
Phil, I see it now… if you want to keep the reality of the scene, the color is the keep point then...

Phil Douglis		13-Mar-2005 22:46
You have an uncanny eye, Dandan. This image is, indeed, all about light and shadow. I just converted this to black and white and see exactly where you are coming from here. It becomes less real, more symbolic and a bit more grim. If that is what I wanted to say with this image, black and white would be the way to go. Yet I wanted this image to also symbolically represent the ebb and flow of people through Tecate's plaza, which to me requires a greater context for reality. When I made it into a black and white, the contrasting warmth of Tecate's plaza vanishes. Vera and I were discussing this very point below -- she sees it all about mood. I still like the touch of reality here, granted by the warmth of the plaza itself. Although this picture certainly works in black and white (Vera would adore it!) I prefer it in color because color works well with my intentions. The mood is still there in color, but so too is the reality. Black and white makes it all mood. Do you see?

Guest		13-Mar-2005 14:14
Phil, since I have been studies your black and white gallery, and this image is all about light and shadow. I am wondering if this is a good candidate for B&W?

Phil Douglis		20-Dec-2004 01:00
Thanks, Vera, for bringing your eagle eye to this image. I think we see essentially the same idea here, only we express it differently. When I said this image represents the ebb and flow of traffic, I meant in mood, not volume. I saw considerable incongruity in the fact that the guy with the purposeful step walks in the shadows, while the slumping, downcast fellow walks in the bright sun. I agree with you, Vera - the guy in the sun is not as vital as the figure in the shadows. As I told my friend Nut down below, I meant this image as a trigger to the imagination. Each and every viewer makes of it whatever they will. But I make them work at it. As Nut told me recently, "your pictures work my brain and spin my eyes." That is the greatest compliment an expressive photographer can ever receive.

Guest		19-Dec-2004 23:30
I like this image very much, Phil. It is minimalistic (and you know how huge a fan I'm of minimalism!), it plays with shadows & light (ditto!), and so it is both visually appealing to my eyes and expressive to my mind. :-) You see the image as symbolizing the ebb & flow of pedestrian traffic. For me, I cling more to the idea of someone (apparently not in very bright mood) choosing to walk in the dark, either consciously (he can't bear the happy sunshine) or subconsciously (he is too deep in his melancholy thoughts to notice that he's walking in the shade). So it seems that the man walking under the sun is not as vital in my interpretation of the image as in yours, is it? Also, he walks in quite a funny way (his crooked legs, etc.). ;-) Vera.

Phil Douglis		14-Dec-2004 22:37
I like your phrase "hard image." Do you a hard image to interpret, or an image of a hard life? Could be both. I think your feeling of imprisonment is certainly valid, Mikel.

Guest		14-Dec-2004 22:09
I don't know, this image I find it a bit inquietant, the light but closed marble ground, the metal fens and the dark part below separate it from this other upper part and the fact of having one subject in the shadow and the other one looking in the ground, it makes me feel like if I wold be in a prison tourret watching the prisoners in the courtyard or something similar. It is a hard image.

Phil Douglis		01-Dec-2004 22:29
The wheel of life -- a wonderful concept, Clara. I urge my viewers to read my pictures symbolically, read my explanation as well, and then come to their own conclusions. You have done just that!

Guest		01-Dec-2004 17:35
again, you know the plaza because you were there, but I could not have infer it. so, to me the image is better read symbolically. I see two men, two diverse attitudes, both turning around thw wheel/stairway of life.

Phil Douglis		09-Nov-2004 19:40
Those are the three words from Nut that brings a smile to my lips. "I got it."

nut		09-Nov-2004 17:13
I got it.

Phil Douglis		30-Oct-2004 22:42
I love it when you take me through your thinking process, Nut. As a photographer and teacher, you help me learn more about my own art and craft by showing me how a viewer sees and interprets my work. What you are doing here, Nut, is using my picture as a springboard for your own imagination to work. You will see in this image whatever you want to see in it, and that will depend as much upon who you are are, as what the image itself reveals. So just enjoy, and learn from the experience of reading an image. That is what expressive photography is meant to do.

nut		30-Oct-2004 08:38
Well, I am thinking :) It's an abstract photo. That's the reason why I have to think. Many of your photo here make me think. I won't give any more words if I am not really clear about. Now let see, your photo has 45% in shadow and 55% in day light. I felt hopeless and no power because of the solid metal in dark shadow blocked my eyes and one guy with 90% of useless feeling. But can you see something. One guy in day light, he still keep walking. Other guy in shadow saw something; something new and he might afraid of. If I can look forward to the end of this situation. I won't surprise if I see the nice smile from both of them. You might capture one minute of their life. But their doesn't have only just 1. That's what I saw from your photo.

Phil Douglis		29-Oct-2004 21:54
No hope! No energy! You've said it all in just a few words, Nut.

nut		29-Oct-2004 18:09
Hopeless and no more power to walk. Just no hope to me.

Phil Douglis		11-Oct-2004 00:00
Thanks for seeing what I intended in this image, Rodney. If an image can stimulate a train of thought such as you have expressed, it is doing what it should.

Guest		10-Oct-2004 20:46
I had the same feeling as Jenny. When I saw this, I felt isolated entirely, no hope to get to the light. Like wise, the chap in shadows, while more privleged than me, is also deprived, but at least he is outside the barrier. The guy in the sun, is interesting...while most free to enjoy the sun, he seems to try to hide from it. This reminds me of the saying "the grass is always greener on the other side" or "one man's chicken is another man's steak." He has the sun, but does not fully want it...Maybe he would envy the guy in the shadows, maybe even envy me I must not endure the sun...while I, in opposite long for it.

Phil Douglis		01-Oct-2004 17:18
Jen, thanks so much for even mentioning this picture in the same breath as HCB's masterpiece of the speeding cyclist imprisoned within a world of stone and iron. Both of these images share the theme of stopping human activity within a framework of barriers. But HCB's goes far beyond my own image because of the incongruity between the speeding bike and the inert stone and iron framework that surrounds him. As for my image, your interpretation is perfect. I am trying here to express that feeling of containment you mention -- I am barring you from jumping over that wall and comforting that man who is trudging along with his head down. You are isolated from him, and he has isolated himself from the rest of society, which I represent by the other, upright, man. This image is all about barriers, isolation, and depression. All of us have felt depressed at times. All of us have felt isolated and hopeless. And if you feel that way when you look at this image, Jen, you are mirroring feelings that you may have experienced in your own life. You put it best -- this image is about that "dark area in my heart."

Jennifer Zhou		01-Oct-2004 12:02
This picture reminds me one of Henri's work:http://www.peterfetterman.com/artists/cb/pic31.html which I still can't quite figure out the meanings.. From this picture of you, I kind of get a feeling of isolation..I am forbided crossing over this wire wall and I am as frustrated as that man walking behind..It's a very depressive image to me and I have all this dark area in my heart..am I mirroring something? Jen

Phil Douglis		04-Jun-2004 16:08
Thanks, Jim, for this perceptive comment. You are right -- I often conceive my images to reveal meaning gradually, rather than instantly. This was one of those pictures. I created my frame as a backdrop of light and shadow first, and then waited as people walked through that light and shadow in various positions and attitudes. These particular people were in the perfect spot -- one of them merging into the shadow, the other just free of it. Together, they create an interplay of light and shadow that gradually reveals itself.

Jim Chiesa		04-Jun-2004 15:38
The first thing I saw on this image was the contrast between the man and the shadow backlit by the marble. My first reaction then was to find the correlation between the man and the shadow. Then I realized that they were separate. Took a step backwards to look at it all again. It was then that the whole image took its full expression when I realized that this shot was taken with a remarkable "eye" to produce such an impact. Perhaps comparable to a glass of good wine that is able to reveal a variety of flavours only after a few seconds of appreciation, and then you say "Wow ! Thank-you, Mr Douglis, for this unique moment of pleasure for the eye.

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