Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Seventeen: Memories in Metal and Stone: How monuments, sculpture, and tombs express ideas. > Cloister, Fonseca College, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 2004
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02-SEP-2004

Cloister, Fonseca College, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 2004

Archbishop Fonseca III founded Fonseca College in Santiago in the 16th century. To offer viewers a good sense of this place, as well as the Archbishop himself, I integrate a section of the cloister with a part of the statue. This image is as much about light and color as it is about things. Once again, a spot meter allows me to expose for the brightest part of the picture – the center part of the cloister itself. Everything else in the image becomes underexposed – the left side of the cloister, the bush and the statue. Because of these dark shadows, the cloister and statue look old, very old. That is how I wanted this image to feel. We are encouraged to study the image, looking at its now subdued detail. We see a small sculpture of a turbaned figure on the cloister, no doubt a reference to the Moors who once ruled here. A Latin inscription streams cross the top of the picture. I carefully adjusted my camera position to allow the elbow of the Archbishop to just touch the column of the Cloister. He becomes a part of it. His body language is exquisite – hunched over, deep in thought, perfect reactions for a man with great responsibilities – and ambitions. By using almost a quarter of the picture for that bush, I was able to also to stress the contrast between yesterday and today – the greenery flourishes amidst the old stones and metal around it.

Canon PowerShot G5
1/1000s f/4.0 at 28.8mm hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time02-Sep-2004 15:09:29
MakeCanon
ModelPowerShot G5
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length28.8 mm
Exposure Time1/1000 sec
Aperturef/4
ISO Equivalent
Exposure Bias
White Balance (-1)
Metering Modemulti spot (3)
JPEG Quality (6)
Exposure Programshutter priority (2)
Focus Distance

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