Threes, Guanajuato, Mexico, 2005 by Phil Douglis

Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Twenty Two: Black and white travel photography – making less into more > Threes, Guanajuato, Mexico, 2005

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26-OCT-2005

Threes, Guanajuato, Mexico, 2005

I built this image around the presence of three posts and three people. The posts are linked by chains and rigidly aligned. The people are free to go their own way in their own time. I shot the image at mid-day, using backlighting to abstract both the posts and the people. The more abstract this image becomes, the more the posts and people function as symbol, rather than description. Black and white imaging will always increase the degree of abstraction by removing the nuance and meaning of color. Just as backlighting hones this image down to the bone, so too, does monochrome.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30
1/1000s f/9.0 at 88.8mm iso100 hide exif

Full EXIF Info
Date/Time	26-Oct-2005 19:41:24
Make	Panasonic
Model	DMC-FZ30
Flash Used	No
Focal Length	88.8 mm
Exposure Time	1/1000 sec
Aperture	f/9
ISO Equivalent	100
Exposure Bias	-0.33
White Balance	(10)
Metering Mode	multi spot (3)
JPEG Quality	(6)
Exposure Program	program (2)
Focus Distance

other sizes: small medium large original auto

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Phil Douglis		03-Jul-2007 17:14
I like the way you analyze the structure of this image, Marisa. You not only show us how I've organized the image in terms of eye flow, but also how the very same elements carry symbolic meaning as well. Thanks for pointing this out.

Guest		03-Jul-2007 12:06
My first impression was to 'see' people instead of posts... looking better, I discovered the difference. I like not only the wonderful use of light here, but how you compose the image in the corners, with those two opposite lines: one straight and the other one with a subtle curve. Both of them lead the eye and contain the scene, but I feel that the posts and its line are useful like a support; in a way, like a safe support to flow more freely in life, represented by the curved line of the right.

Phil Douglis		30-Nov-2006 20:21
Thanks, Chris, for this interpretation. The very reason most of these people walk this street is to go to and from their places of work. Cities are, by definition, centers of commerce, wealth, and power. The people that walk this street along with those chains, as you say, could well be seen as metaphorical prisoners of consumerism, greed, and status.

Chris Sofopoulos		30-Nov-2006 16:25
When I first saw this image, one thought came in my mind. People in nowadays are prisoned by their amazing desire for money and wealth. They work from the morning till night to have money to buy. Only to buy new things. It's the basic principles of the west world. These bars with chains are so similar with the people. People seem free to walk and to go everywhere and do everything but in reality they are prisoners of their desire for more and more money and goods. Stunning image Phil! Absolutely stunning.

Phil Douglis		11-Nov-2006 19:43
Thank you, Theodore. My commentary is as important as my images. This is how I teach.

Guest		11-Nov-2006 11:03
Again, I love the depth of your commentary.

Phil Douglis		16-Sep-2006 21:40
Thanks caveman lee-- the shadows give this image much of its dimensionality. Not only the shadows that trail the people on the street, but also the shadows that abstract their bodies, the posts, and create the darkness in the background.

caveman_lee		16-Sep-2006 13:33
Nice capture. I like the way that the shadows are included in this shot.

Phil Douglis		18-Feb-2006 00:55
Thanks, Jen, for seeing what I was seeing in this image -- the relationship between the spontaneous and the rigid, the free and the enslaved, the unpredictable and the predictable. This image would work just as well in my "Contradictions and Opposites" gallery, but it is here in black and white because of the symbolic force of black and white. And yes, it does remind me of the Bravo image -- which is also abstract, and contrasts the relaxed bodies of the people against the chained bar stools. Here is the image -- "The Crouched Ones" :http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/1997/alvarezbravo/photos.html

Jennifer Zhou		17-Feb-2006 08:48
Phil, this image reminds me of one of Manuel Alvarez-Bravo's most famous works with five men sitting on the stools in a bar, and the stools were locked by chains. so the five men sitting on them appeared to be locked to each other as well. But here in your photos, you are making contrast between the posts and people. The degree of abstraction makes the photo work so well.. The three people are heading for three directions but it is your photo linking them togeter in this moment and forever..

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