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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Sixteen: Story-telling street photography > Lineup at Mahagandhayon, Amarapura, Myanmar
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Lineup at Mahagandhayon, Amarapura, Myanmar

The 1,000 monks, who live, study and pray at Burma’s Mahagandhayn Monastery, line up in the street for their daily meal. I made this street photograph into an abstraction by shooting some of them from behind, and using their shadows cast on the street itself to define their purpose. Monks are spiritual beings. They do not put their personal identities on display, but rather defer to their collective mission as Buddhist monks. The line of shadows is a metaphor for that spiritual quest. Shadows have no identity. And they, too, wait with infinite patience on this sun-baked street.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20
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MakePanasonic
ModelDMC-FZ20
Flash UsedNo
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ISO Equivalent100
Exposure Bias0.30
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JPEG Quality (6)
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Phil Douglis27-Nov-2006 02:18
The shadows convey the message, Ade -- as I said, they are a metaphor for a spiritual quest. They have as much patience as the monks.
Guest 26-Nov-2006 20:22
THe shadows make this special for me
Phil Douglis11-Nov-2005 05:14
Good point, Dave. I often find that shooting people from behind places the emphasis on the situation, rather than the individual. In this case, it is the situation that is important.
Dave Wyman01-Nov-2005 20:48
If the monks were shown from the front, some of the abstract quality would dissapate, as we would probably spend more time looking at faces rather than the lineup.
Phil Douglis28-Feb-2005 02:15
If you saw this lineup from the front, instead of the back, you would see the rice bowls, thereby knowing the purpose of this lineup. But as you say, the purpose of the lineup is subordinate to the spiritual nature of my image, which allows me to abstract the scene from behind.
monique jansen27-Feb-2005 10:33
These monks could be lining up for so many things, prayer, school, food...the viewer cannot know, but the diagonals, the shades of red and the shadows on the ground speak for themselves.
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