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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Three: Expressing human values > Morning Hug, Mercado de San Juan de Dios, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, 2005
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02-NOV-2005

Morning Hug, Mercado de San Juan de Dios, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, 2005

A huge embrace greets a small child at one of San Miguel’s major markets. I shot this at medium telephoto length --- about 85mm. The key to the image is the expression of the woman and the large scale of her head and hand contrasted to the smaller head of the child. The image expresses intimate, intense and soulful contact between two human beings. It speaks of love and care and protection – all basic human values.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30
1/60s f/4.0 at 30.6mm iso80 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time02-Nov-2005 08:06:57
MakePanasonic
ModelDMC-FZ30
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length30.6 mm
Exposure Time1/60 sec
Aperturef/4
ISO Equivalent80
Exposure Bias-0.33
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 Douglis25-Aug-2007 17:36
Thanks, Cyndy -- the colors here complement the emotional content. Red, rich, and warm. I appreciate your linkage to Rivera here -- his work was close to folk art, and this image is very much in that vein.
Guest 25-Aug-2007 08:22
I love the earthy tones and the deep, rich red. Subject, scale and colors remind me of a Diego Rivera. Lovely. Just lovely.
Phil Douglis14-Nov-2006 00:46
And that's the point of studying this cyberbook with me, Theodore. To change the way you think about photographs. Ultimately, it will help you change your own vision.
Guest 13-Nov-2006 07:28
I'm beginning to understand and appreciate what you're saying better. I've started to look at photographs much differently now. Thank you.
Phil Douglis12-Nov-2006 20:15
Thanks, Theodore, for feeling these emotions so strongly. A emotional image is likely to stir similar emotions within the viewer. You empathize with her. You feel like hugging the kid, too. And that is why I made this image in this way. As you will see, this image has expressed many human values to its viewers: love, protection, sorrow, security, worry, loss, mourning, intimacy, nourishment, and safety. We will all feel what we want to feel here -- the photo itself is only a beginning. It is what the viewer chooses to do with this image in his or her imagination that matters most to me.
Guest 12-Nov-2006 13:42
Such intense emotion! Wonderfully captured. It's as though she was hugging her son who just narrowly avoided being knocked down by a lorry.
Phil Douglis29-Jul-2006 00:06
I think sadness is a common part of such love as this. She seem to sense that the day will come when she will no longer be able to offer such expressive love to this boy, and it is written in her expression.
Guest 28-Jul-2006 17:09
Oh, forgot to mention that when I first saw this image, I thought the mom and the child are going to be apart for a long time, thats why she looks so sad.
Guest 28-Jul-2006 17:09
Not surprising we see sorrow because of the expression we see in the mother's face. Well, you were there and you know that it wasnt sorrow, but only love and care. This leads me think of over-protected love that the mom gives the child. Maybe this idea comes to my mind because of my occupation too. I have seen too many of over-protection of parents to their kids.

Emi
Phil Douglis14-Dec-2005 21:57
I like the way you point out how the incongruities and abstraction here intensify the human values in this image projects, Rod. The power of the frame to create positive pressure, to abstract, to suggest, is very evident in this image. I used a tight frame to make this moment more intimate, more intense, and ultimately to abstract the image in such a way so as to invite the imagination of the viewer to enter the image and become part of it. I am glad that you did.
Guest 14-Dec-2005 18:34
I forgot to mention the fence/bars also add to the photo. as her back is to it...further protection to be sure the child is safe....where nothing can approach from behind....only from the front
Guest 14-Dec-2005 18:33
I love the pressue created by filling the frame with the woman and the child. (it's the type of pressure and composition I was trying to describe may work better for a previous photo I commented about the boys in Laos--where one was asleep and one shy). I feel filling the frame makes the photo drip with human values, incongruity, abstraction.

My first feeling was deep caring and wanting to give the child a sense of safety and security. The size of her is both an incongruity, and creates abstraction when compared to the small kid.

The abstraction created by using her body as a framing, in a way, gives the sense nothing can get to the child unless it come from in front of her, and she has an eye open to see anything coming.

Another incongruity, to me, is while she is making sure the child feels safe and secure, her face tells she has worries, as if she too needs some reassurance in life that things are, or will be, ok.
Phil Douglis16-Nov-2005 22:44
Thank you, Kal, for taking Mikel's comment a step further, and looking at the nature of love as it can be offered in various contexts. You are right -- this image can be read as an expression of sorrow, grief, intimacy, protectiveness, or nourishment. All have their roots in love. And all are essential human values. What we see and think and feel about this image all depends upon the context we bring to it.
Kal Khogali16-Nov-2005 15:33
Love comes in guises..isn't sorrow an expression of love? I see sorrow here too..I even (due to my natural instinct for the ironic in a situation) thought that your morning was a play on the word mourning...either way, this love is protective, whether it is expressed in sorrow, or intimacy, and it spills out of the image....that is what photojournalism is about...
Phil Douglis12-Nov-2005 02:30
It is amazing how one's own context can change entirely the meaning of an image. I was there -- and I saw the child playing with this woman, and I saw her love for him and his for her. So I see this image as all about love, care, and protection. As a photojournalist, you are no doubt reading your own experiences with suffering people into this image. You are right -- this could indeed be a grieving mother in a war zone. But fortunately for her, for the kid, and for all of us, that was not the case. Thanks, Mikel, for giving us insights into how the context we read into an image can drastically change its meaning.
Guest 12-Nov-2005 02:25
This is an image of sorrow, the women hold the child with a sad face, just a step away of letting her tears roll down her cheaks. It almost looks like she has lost a loved one, like the child it's self. In other context it could seem a mother of a war zone like Iraq or Palestine holding the body of her dead child doe to the heatred of human kind. Luckaly I imagine that it was not the case.
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