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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Seven: Making time count > Cascade, near Leiden, The Netherlands, 2005
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18-JUN-2005

Cascade, near Leiden, The Netherlands, 2005

A fast flowing but modest amount of water flowing over a small sculpted figure in a Dutch fountain becomes a cascade of blurred liquid, creating an expressively emotional yet abstract image. I used a medium telephoto focal length to make this intimate image at close range without getting wet. The shutter speed of 1/125th of a second keeps the figure’s face sharp, yet the water’s pattern and rate of flow translates into torrents of smeared blur at that shutter speed. The image acquires the flavor of an abstract painting layered in heavy strokes, which intensifies the feeling of action and movement I was looking for.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20
1/125s f/4.0 at 37.0mm iso80 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time18-Jun-2005 14:51:12
MakePanasonic
ModelDMC-FZ20
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length37 mm
Exposure Time1/125 sec
Aperturef/4
ISO Equivalent80
Exposure Bias
White Balance (10)
Metering Modemulti spot (3)
JPEG Quality (6)
Exposure Programprogram (2)
Focus Distance

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis22-Jun-2007 23:25
Wow -- that was some comment, Daniel. I am thrilled that this image has had such an impact on you. I worked on it for a long time. As for being in the "wrong gallery," there really is no "right" gallery, either. I place my images where I think they can do the best job of teaching a particular aspect of expressive photography. However, I could just as well display many of my images, including this one, in any number of galleries, because they can offer so many different ways of looking at photography. The thoughts and emotions this image has evoked in you are all valuable -- they demonstrate the infinite number of ways that an expressive image can affect the imagination and intellect of the viewer.
Guest 22-Jun-2007 21:42
This image is so incredibly captivating, it elicits so many emotions all at once! Before commenting I tried to avoid reading your description and the current comments in fear that they might influence in one way or another. Thus, I've got wordpad up right now next to the image as I comment. :) I feel like this image is placed the wrong gallery. It should be in a gallery titled "Personification". More than any other image I've seen thus far on your galleries (and I'm going through them one by one, picture by picture), this image really showcases your talent in assigning human qualities, emotions, characteristics, etc to an inanimate object!!! My goodness, I could go on and on about the feelings it evokes as I look at it: at the surface I see: perserverance, strength, stamina, and determination. Looking at the image some more, it slowly morphs into catharsis, beauty, triumph. Finally, what hit me at the end of staring at it for 5 minutes is sacrifice. And that's what's been ricochetting around my head as I type this comment. Forgive me for bringing religion into this comment, but this reminds me of Jesus Christ dying on the cross. Sacrifice embodies strength, perserverance, dedication, catharsis, beauty, and triumph all in one word. Incredibly amazing work here Phil. A photo has never made me felt the way I just have.
Phil Douglis25-Jul-2006 17:38
The sculptor has worked his or her magic here, Jenene, and now it is my turn to make my own. I use time and light as my tool. You are very perceptive as always -- you see those human values that both sculpture and photograph express. Hope, determination, purity and dignity are concepts that all humans understand and share, and can relate to. We can add endurance, suffering, strength, and courage to the mix as well. It is seldom that we can see and feel so many human values gathered into one fountain that has been made into an expressive photograph. I felt all of them as I made this image.
JSWaters25-Jul-2006 14:46
I see all of the possibilities mentioned in the comments so far. I see the gleaming figure moving forward through the sheeting water with hope and determination. Her head is held high, and has cleared the obstacles behind her, cleansed by the cool water. She has let life wash over her, dignity intact, and is readying herself for the next stage with purpose.
Jenene
Phil Douglis24-Jan-2006 00:29
Thanks, Azlin, for stressing the cleansing aspect of this photograph. The blurred water intensifies the force of that cleansing, expressing, perhaps a sense of purity.
Azlin Ahmad28-Dec-2005 19:38
If I could name this image, I would call it "Ablution". There is something almost religious about this image, the combination of the gold streaks, the cascade of cleansing water, and the reverent expression on her face. To me, the blur of the water indicates volume, and somehow, time is also suspended. I like this image. Thank you for sharing this with us.
Phil Douglis03-Dec-2005 03:27
Welcome back, Jude -- good to see your comments again. You are right about this image -- the movement of the water, and the textures it creates, provide an expressive contrast to the static figure of the statue.
Jude Marion03-Dec-2005 02:41
This is gorgeous ... I really like the contrasts here ... the static figure and the motion created by the burred water ... the dark of the scultpure draped in the lightness of the water ... You've captured some beautiful textures here too.
Phil Douglis03-Aug-2005 18:10
And more power to you, Zandra, for projecting so much of yourself into this image. As I often tell my students, we are what we photograph and we photograph what we are. By the same token, when we read the images of others, we mirror our own attitudes and experiences in our interpretations of them. You and I are friends, and you have shared your difficult personal struggles, as well as your recent triumph, with me, so I knew instantly why you saw the things you saw in my image. Thanks for confirming it. In doing so, you are show us how important personal context becomes in reading and interpreting images, as well as in making them. We can never separate who we are from how we look at life. And when I made this image, I knew almost immediately what you would see in it if you were to come upon it in my galleries. Thank you, Zandra, for sharing so much of yourself with us in this interpretation.
Guest 03-Aug-2005 06:50
In your reply you say "Knowing what you have been going through in your life recently, it does not surprise me that you equate this image with your own experience. It is you, Zandra, that really runs free here, as you turn a corner in your own life. Am I not right? " And of course you are right. I let my own experiences from life guide me as i intepriate this image and let my imagination run free. Just as you let your own experience guide you when composing. To be able to express you must have something to express, life experience gives us that. The camera, the key board i type on, the dances i do or the drawing i draw are only tools for expressing small parts of my life. You also say "it is about standing up to the constant buffeting of life itself" This tells us quit a lot about you to. You, just as i, just as most people has also had to stand up to that buffeting. And so this becomes your way of saying...I am staning strong, spite the buffeting. Having another look at this, i see victory. Victory over the hardship in life. I draw pararells to an athlet raising their arms i joy as they cross the finnish line. Only the finsish line in this case is abstracted and imaginative. It is not a physical finish line but a mental one. One we have in our minds and harts, yet we need to cross it to move forward. To do that, that is the victory. Again, i use my own recent experience to add this intepritation to the image. As recent events has allowed me to move forward and cross that finnish line.
Phil Douglis02-Aug-2005 16:35
You see very deeply into this image, Zandra, which tells me that my image is working on your imagination, and is expressive. You are correct -- I immediately sensed that the sculptor was was expressing courage, endurance, and strength. As I mentioned to Anna Pagnacco below, it is about standing up to the constant buffeting of life itself. The more pounding she takes, the stronger she will become. So my task was to intensify that pounding. And that is where time comes into play. I am glad you noticed where the water seems to be striking her body the hardest. Right in the heart and breast area. Each is enormously symbolic -- the heart of life, the breast of the nurturer, the whole chest, the symbol of human passion. The face, as you say, remains free of struggle, allowing to see her way through the ordeal. The human values of hope and courage certainly come into play.

You also add new insights to this image for me, Zandra. I love the way you incorporate the senses into this image. You say she can smell and taste the light that pulls her free of the storm of water that is beating upon her. That's because the light has illuminated the nose and the mouth, the source of smell and taste. Yet her eyes are in shadow. She is yet to see her way out, but she certainly can feel, smell, and touch it. Thanks, too, for pointing out that the upraised arms are as symbol of wanting more. You validate my decision to deliberately tighten the crop to intensify the opposing forces here, and create tension. The struggle between the force of the water pounding on the body on the one hand, and the expansive gesture and illuminated nose and mouth area on the other have obviously created the tension which has launched your imagination well beyond the limits of the frame, and implying a new beginning for this symbolic woman and for all of us. As I have often mentioned, we often read much of ourselves into an image. Knowing what you have been going through in your life recently, it does not surprise me that you equate this image with your own experience. It is you, Zandra, that really runs free here, as you turn a corner in your own life. Am I not right?

Six different things are going on here at once to make this picture express its ideas -- the sculptors own eloquent expression of the human form, the dynamics of the water splashing upon the sculpture, my use of time to blur and smear the splashing water as in a painting, the golden brown color of the bronze, the play of light upon the sculpture at this particular moment in time, and my tight framing. All of which has created an intimate and emotional photograph that has brought out the best of Zandra's imagination, and encouraged her to make her own work of art out of it and become this woman. Thank you, as always, for bringing such feeling and insight to this image, Zandra. You have made the fifteen or twenty minutes I spent shooting this image so very worthwhile. I learned much from your interpretation -- you allow me to see this image with new eyes. And if this image has struck a spark of recognition deep within you, I am thrilled. I would like nothing more than to dedicate this image to you and to your future.
Guest 02-Aug-2005 13:28
What a great example of how to use time and cropping to abstract and change meaning of a picture. I am not gonna read your comment untill i have posted my own first. Maybe i will come back with a second comment after reading your idea behind it. But first i just want to let my own imagination intepriate the image. This becomes an images of suffering for me, and the sacrifyses we have to make in life. But yet it is about strength and endurance...to actually stand up against those challenges no matter what. All this is empowered of how the water actually hits her the hardest right in her hart, the core of her soul. Just as in life, it is our hart that suffers the most in times of dispare. Yet, her face in clear, showing that we can endure and not become over welmed. We can see through the cascade and find a way out, find the strength. In the end, that makes this image about hope and courage. This is a feeling which is made stronger by the light surounding she is in. Her face has just made it in to the light from the dark and now she can smell it and taste it. She wants more and her arms reaches out for it. Her hart becomes lighter in spite of the beating she suffers from the water. Your tight crop makes me think that she is not just slowley reaching out form the dark but she is actually running, throwing her self out there, towards new beginnings. Leaving all which is behind her to stay in the frame while she runs free.
Phil Douglis05-Jul-2005 21:39
Yes, Kal -- I feel the cleansing effect as well -- the angle of the light obscures the eye in shadow and leaves the nose and mouth in sunlight.
Kal Khogali05-Jul-2005 14:40
You talk of this image mainly in terms of motion Phil, but something I find special about it is the effect of the lighting, The head in shadow, with only the nose and mouth in light is not only incongruent, but that dark shadow contrasts well with the bright white strokes of water passing by. The result is almost an effect of the water washing away the darkness of the shadows. A metaphorical cleansing.
Phil Douglis02-Jul-2005 18:02
Good luck, Anna, in your experiments with motion. I am delighted you like this image -- it was a big learning step for me, too. The more I look at it, the more thoughts it brings to mind -- the heavy smears of water, the explosions of water on the chest, the stoic abstract response, the body language, all speak to me of endurance, of standing up to the constant buffeting of life itself.
Anna Pagnacco02-Jul-2005 05:09
I like this image a lot...the effect is very aristic and I will try to get the same as soon as possible.

....
Thank you Phil for the explanation, a pleasure to learn...Ciao, Anna
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