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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Four: Finding meaning in details > Still Life, Foresta Barn Detail, Yosemite National Park, California, 2004
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15-OCT-2004

Still Life, Foresta Barn Detail, Yosemite National Park, California, 2004

This still life is a study of both nature and authority. The United States National Park Service has locked a barn door, a product of both man and nature. I move in with my camera in macro mode to stress the USNPS on the lock, its long broken chain, the rusted door latch, and two wooden planks, one painted, the other naturally weathered. The most striking element in this image, however, is the large oval knot in the weathered plank. It has the same coloration as the rusted latch, and becomes a diagonal arrow pointing directly at the latch. What makes it all work is the wealth of detail that becomes visible at this very close range. Not only the initials on the lock, but the rings in the knot, the grain in the doors, the links in the chain, and the scratches on the latch, all become part of the story because of my close-up vantage point.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20
1/250s f/3.3 at 14.9mm iso80 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time15-Oct-2004 22:10:35
MakePanasonic
ModelDMC-FZ20
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length14.9 mm
Exposure Time1/250 sec
Aperturef/3.3
ISO Equivalent80
Exposure Bias-1.00
White Balance (10)
Metering Modemulti spot (3)
JPEG Quality (6)
Exposure Programprogram (2)
Focus Distance

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Phil Douglis02-Nov-2006 20:33
Thanks, Amaya, for your comment. You do not have to know a lot about photography to feel a picture. I am glad you took the time to tell me how this image strikes you. The dead color is very important to this image. When combined with the lock and the knot, which is actually the scar from a severed branch, I, too, can find a sadness in this image. As you can see, this image has stimulated much discussion -- the more we probe this image, the more it seems to deliver.
Amaya 02-Nov-2006 19:51
Beautiful texture,this wood is interesting,of course,not the only one that's beautiful,but every form of it's growth is extremly sensual,and the color,dead.
Kind of sad in a way.
Nice shot.
(someone who does not know about photography,but feels what sees)
Phil Douglis02-May-2006 02:43
Thanks, LKR for this perceptive observation. You have a good eye and a quick mind. As you will see, if you read my response to Jen's wonderful comment, I was trying to comment on the relationship of man and nature. I said that man uses nature for his own ends. He wounds it, imprisons it, an uses it. And yes, the open wound and the closed lock are indeed an incongruous pairing.
Guest 02-May-2006 02:16
the oval knot, to my eye, looks like a scar. a wound. an opening. strange that it is beside a punctuated closure.
Phil Douglis04-Dec-2005 23:40
Thank you, AJ, for your comment. It is always interesting to learn why and hows relate to my images. I never even thought of this picture as an image intended to please a lover of locks. Yet I see it has. And I am glad.
Guest 04-Dec-2005 21:11
lovely work ... as an admirer of locks I can only complement
Phil Douglis23-Apr-2005 19:12
Glad you find this image to be thought provoking, Ruth. It is very similar to my Caboose image athttp://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/20737861 I fully intended this photograph to link nature to authority. You extend that meaning to abuse of authority, which is certainly a possibility here. Whenever we concentrate on details such as these, we are abstracting the image. And as we know, abstraction leaves plenty of room for the viewers imagination to see whatever it wants to see. I like your metaphor of the human face here, unable to speak. It takes considerable imagination to extend the meaning of this image in that manner, and I salute you for doing it, Ruth.
ruthemily23-Apr-2005 13:03
on first seeing this image my first thought was how the knots of wood create a face. the large knot one eye, the one peeping out from the latch another, and the long inverted triangular shape as a nose. no mouth, as this 'person' has no right to speak, they do not have the freedom of expression in being bound by lock and chain. the face seems distorted and sad, but resigned. below the first eye that i mentioned, i also see 2 smaller eyes. when i read Rodney's comment, it all came together for me. "a person being oppressed by abuse of authority". this image is, in my mind, on a par to your Caboose image. it speaks of the same thing, and moves me just as deeply.
Phil Douglis12-Jan-2005 03:32
I love your interpretation here, Rod. I am not surprised that you and Jen saw similar meanings here. You both are very conscious of the role of symbolic interpretation in your own imagery as well. I post this image in this gallery, to show how important it can be to focus the viewer's attention on the symbolic details here. To most people looking at this scene from a distance, it is just a door with a lock on it. But everything changes when we abstract the subject by moving in on it, stressing the symbolic meaning created by the interrelationship of detail. I can see good reasons for why you came to the conclusions you reached here, Rod. You build your impressions around the nature of authority, rather than a study of nature's relationship to authority, as I chose to do.
Guest 12-Jan-2005 00:48
It's interesting. My initial view is similar to Jen's. Not marriage, as she stated, but a person being oppressed by abuse of authority. The darker wood panels to me seem to be keeping centry on the gray one. The lock (with it's government marking) is the badge of authority--representing its power to hold you. The severe scar is result of fighting that authority (scar from that chain which is directly connected to the symbol of autohrity). The chain is the weapon used to keep the gray board in check.
Phil Douglis08-Dec-2004 04:18
Clara ponders the same imponderables here that have steamed our friend Nut. Thank you, Clara, for your observation that my photograph acts as a "mediator" upon the relationship between man and nature. (It is ironic that I made this image of a United States National Park Service structure, which stands on land owned by all of us.) I certainly agree with your observation that this abstract photograph changes, through close and uniquely defined detail, ordinary realities into extraordinary juxtapositions. If it can provoke such thoughts as you express here, it is doing what I intended it to do. As for your plaintive question: "who owns nature?" the answer, friend Clara, is all of us. Because all of us are indeed part of nature's design, whether we deserve to be or not.
Phil Douglis08-Dec-2004 04:04
This picture has stimulated your imagination enough to make mild mannered Nut angry? You read an entirely different meaning into this picture than I intended. Which I think is wonderful. You see the tree's knot as an ironic smile, as if it was still alive. You see the National Park Service building this shed out of nature and then locking its door to keep other humans out. To someone who loves nature, it makes no sense at all, does it? But if man did not make use of nature's bounty, there would be no man. We drink nature's water, breathe its air, eat its produce, use its wood for shelter, cook by its fires, wear clothing made from its plants and animals. For centuries, the houses that keep us warm and safe have been built out of live trees cut into planks and beams. In return, we nourish nature by replenishing and conserving whatever we can. The key, Nut, rests in our willingness to use nature wisely, not foolishly, selfishly, greedily, or destructively as we have been using it. It is to promote that kind of thinking that I have made images such as this.
nut 07-Dec-2004 20:01
This redwood got cut, scar, burned and now fix himself with a man-made door in order to protect human.
It's ashame and ridiculous.
nut 07-Dec-2004 19:43
This is not the new cut scar on the Sequoia wood. But the different between tree-ring and surface outside made
this oval look new and alive. Some black surface outside the core is not because of the rain, because no damage
by rain at a group of tree-rings. It's the fire. Surface outside was burned before than got this cut scar.
And USNPS brought him here, right?
Guest 07-Dec-2004 16:41
It is almost an abstract painting, if not for the lock and its letters. We see all things superficially. Close/detail composition illustrates ordinary realities that have a world within unnoticed by us. Here we can meditate on the relation between man and nature; do we believe that we're "owners" of her?
nut 07-Dec-2004 15:55
I saw the sneering smile on the weathered plank. Smile because of what human did. Human can take anything
from nature and always come up with good reason to promote themselves. This smile make me feel shame on myself.
This tree is still alive, isn't it? So he is here since beginning right? And USNPS came later then built in this
way. Well, human took everything from nature for this still life and now they want nature to protect them from
human. I think it's ridiculous.
Phil Douglis20-Nov-2004 19:13
Thanks, Jen for the follow up comment. Don't ever feel sorry for bringing an interpretation other than my own to my pictures -- see whatever you want to see within my images, and learn more about photographic expression by comparing your own interpretation to my interpretation. And thank you for appreciating one of my motives as an expressive photographer. If my pictures can stimulate people to think about relationship of man and nature in a fresh and provocative way, they will have accomplished what I've set out to do.
Jennifer Zhou20-Nov-2004 10:29
Your intention on this phicture is truely wonderful Phil!! I am sorry I didn't realize that on my first look but more gladly that I could learn Phil's point of view through it. I found you like to seek for the realtionships between human and nature. Your points are often educational, they make people rethink of the issues you brought on and hopefully they can take actions to make the world better place to live. You were able to do that with the previous picture and you did it here again in a more subtle way.

It is a picture should not be missed...And I am so glad I didn't.

Jen
Phil Douglis19-Nov-2004 20:13
Thanks, Jen, for your poignant observation. I was waiting for someone to find this shot and comment on it, and I'm glad you are the first because as a sensitive creative artist you always feel deeply about my images and you read so much into them.

Your view of these contrasting boards as very different people, the latch and lock and chain as a marriage, and the knot as a silent cry, is very imaginative, intimate, and quite painful. I did not intend to make that point at all, but if that is how you interpret this image, I can see how these symbols can be read in that way.

My own intention was to comment on the relationship between nature and authority. Man uses nature for his own ends. He wounds it, he imprisons it and he uses it. The governmental lock, the broken chain, the scarred wood, are symbolic details that express this point. Yet as I often say, expressive photography is a subjective and infinitely variable medium. The viewer brings his or her own feelings into play. My images can mirror their own thoughts and ideas, as well as my own.
Jennifer Zhou19-Nov-2004 13:44
What I see here Phil, is not two pieces of wood, but two people, who are very different but happen to be locked to each other. There have no choice but being together. It is like unhappy marriage but somehow they can't be separate. It is a silent cry, we can't hear it but we can see the deep striking wound on her/his heart.

I want to hear what is your intention?

Jen
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