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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Seventeen: Memories in Metal and Stone: How monuments, sculpture, and tombs express ideas. > Flowers and gravestone, Mirogoj Cemetery, Zagreb, Croatia, 2005
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04-SEP-2005

Flowers and gravestone, Mirogoj Cemetery, Zagreb, Croatia, 2005

Someone had left a bouquet of artificial flowers just to the side of this gravestone. I noticed that the shape of the bouquet followed the posture of the grieving angel on the stone. I moved my vantage point until the bouquet fit tightly against the figure on the stone, echoing its flow. The flowers symbolize life, the grieving angel represents death, and the two become opposite sides of the same coin. I expose on the flowers, allowing the figure of the angel to recede into the shadows.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20
1/200s f/4.0 at 21.1mm iso80 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time04-Sep-2005 12:34:04
MakePanasonic
ModelDMC-FZ20
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length21.1 mm
Exposure Time1/200 sec
Aperturef/4
ISO Equivalent80
Exposure Bias
White Balance (10)
Metering Modemulti spot (3)
JPEG Quality (6)
Exposure Programprogram (2)
Focus Distance

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Phil Douglis28-Nov-2007 00:49
Thanks, Patricia, for coming to this image. Angel toes, indeed! You see this image well.
Patricia Lay-Dorsey27-Nov-2007 22:17
What a perfectly expressed, exposed and composed image. As I see it the angel's toes are emerging out of the lip of the yellow lilies, again expressing thhe oneness of death and life.
Phil Douglis21-Dec-2005 20:03
Thanks, Rene, for noting the role of vantage point here in contrasting the opposing colors yet also linking the flow of the flowers with the grieving angel.
Rene Hales21-Dec-2005 14:25
I think your vantage point and angle of view worked well to bring out the opposites in the image. Well done.--Rene
Phil Douglis24-Nov-2005 05:12
I am glad it was you who came first to this image, Diana. I know that you often interpret grief yourself in your own imagery. This particular sculptured angel is moving in its own right as a work of art, but I've tried to use the camera to intensify it by both underexposing the sculpture and building the image around a grouping of flowers that echo the posture of the angel. Yes, this is an a very emotional image, and I am pleased that it moved you as it did me.
Guest 24-Nov-2005 03:23
Amazing photo. The grief, for eternity and fleeting, is palpable.
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