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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Twenty One: The Marketplace -- crossroads of a community. > Hands of a Butcher, Luang Prabang, Laos, 2005
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22-JAN-2005

Hands of a Butcher, Luang Prabang, Laos, 2005

I found the decorated fingers of this young woman somewhat incongruous -- only seconds before I made this picture, she was slicing slabs of bloody meat at Luang Prabang's market. The key to this image is the similarity in color between her fingernail polish and the raw meat. The incongruous detail of the rings contrasted to the meat also helps express the idea, as does the calm, relaxed posture of the hands resting in the woman’s lap. The marketplace is full of incongruities. It is up to the photographer to find them, and bring the incongruous elements into juxtaposition. By abstracting the woman with my frame, I was able to call more attention to them, and emphasize the point at hand. (Pun intended.)

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Phil Douglis21-May-2005 00:43
Thanks, Tim, for adding to Jen's point about this image as symbolizing the balance between man and beast. The woman's flesh is covered with flawless skin and decorative embellishment. The skin of the beast has been removed, probably to become shoes or baggage. Its flesh is on display, waiting to be cooked and devoured by men and women. It does indeed come down to a matter of who holds the power, doesn't it?
Tim May20-May-2005 18:22
I find myself thinking about the fact that beneath the well decorated hand and arms, are similar muscles and flesh. It is power, as Jen says, that allows one flesh to be eaten and one decorated.
Phil Douglis12-Apr-2005 22:01
Thanks, Jen, for these observations. You have added new meaning to my work. I did not think about commenting on man's power over other creatures, but you do. While the non-vegetarians among us enjoy eating the flesh of other creatures without a second thought, this image might, as your comment implies, make some of them reconsider their tastes in food.

You are also right about the degree of abstraction here. I deliberately confine the human part of this picture to the hands, implying much much more than I actually show and targeting the imagination of my viewers in the process.

And finally, I agree that this picture is incongruous. One would expect the hands of a butcher to be stained with blood and to most likely be those of a man. This image confounds our expectations, doesn't it?
Jennifer Zhou12-Apr-2005 07:03
First, you juxtapose human body parts with animal flesh to imply human being has incomparable power over all other creatures. We use our brains and hands to make anything possible, but we were once just live the way no different with other creatures.
Then, you make an emphasis on the hands, those are not just any pair of hands but is of a woman who has her unique character and taste, and your picture just shows enough of that but still makes us wonder.
Last, at least how I see it, butcher usually is a man's job, but here we see a women doing it. That could be an incongruity~

Jen
Phil Douglis01-Mar-2005 02:14
This image resembles the bean cutter's abstracted form superficially, yet it is entirely different in message and method. This image draws its meaning from the color of the fingernails and the meat and other incongruities. In fact, I posted both the bean cutter and this image in this gallery to show how you can take the same approach to structuring a picture (in each of these case showing only arms and hands and context) and yet tell entirely different stories with them.
monique jansen28-Feb-2005 13:26
agree with previous comments, but too similar still on one of more levels with your representative image for me.
Phil Douglis28-Feb-2005 02:17
Good eye, Dandan. Negative space is critical here. The space between the finger tips and the table is full of energy. The forearms form diagonals that lead us right to it.
Guest 27-Feb-2005 10:33
Phil, even before I read your captions, this image draws me eyes to her fingers immediately instead of the meat which occupied half of the image. Are you using the negative space around her hands made this happened?
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