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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Twenty One: The Marketplace -- crossroads of a community. > Naxi family, Baisha, China, 2006
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01-APR-2006

Naxi family, Baisha, China, 2006

Agriculture in China has always been a family business. This group of Naxi women and children have brought assorted home grown greens to the village, selling them to passersby in the street. This family gave me a chance to make a group portrait, not just a picture of people selling vegetables. A group portrait must define the bond that ties a group together as a group. In this case, the gestures are expressing things important to the group: love, protectiveness, confidence, and industriousness. All are human values that go into making a family work as a unit. Note how active the hands are around the perimeter of the image. The woman at left confidently displays her well-worn hands upon her knees. The younger woman at center wraps an arm around her child. The young boy standing next to them holds a toy in his hands and rests an arm on another woman’s shoulder. And that woman, in turn, strokes the head of the little girl who is arranging the produce in a basket.

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Phil Douglis11-May-2006 15:51
Family First! A good title for this image, Shirley. The warmth you see comes from the body language and the colors that surround them.
Shirley Wang11-May-2006 13:58
These two words paint the picture so well. Family first, and then Business. I like the warm feeling.
Phil Douglis21-Apr-2006 22:29
Well said, Celia. You have caught the essence of the purpose of a group portrait: to express the bonds that define the nature of the group itself.
Cecilia Lim21-Apr-2006 19:08
What a wonderfully warming image about love, support and cooperation in this humble family business. It looks like 3 generations have come together for one goal, sharing in work and companionship while making a living selling their meagre harvest. It seems that the love and bond for each other is strong even when they have so little. This is truly a beautiful portrait about human values that we rarely see today in modern cities where there is growing separation and isolation.
Phil Douglis20-Apr-2006 05:06
Thank you, Carol, for noting the importance of the connectedness of this family. I was able to make about four images before they noticed me and became self conscious. At this point, only the two youngest children seemed to be concerned about me. You don't get gestures such as this if people are posing for you. They must come naturally and spontaneously.
Carol E Sandgren20-Apr-2006 03:17
A beautiful image of a loving family, Phil! All the gestures of each of them connected in some way to each other tell the story well of what is going on here.
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