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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Twenty Eight: Using symbols and metaphors to express meaning > Exhibit, Peace Memorial Museum, Hiroshima, Japan, 2006
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23-MAR-2006

Exhibit, Peace Memorial Museum, Hiroshima, Japan, 2006

At 8:15 am on August 6, 1945, the city of Hiroshima, Japan, was destroyed by a single American atomic bomb. The event is commemorated in this museum. The photomural features an image of a wristwatch stilled forever by the blast. The actual watch rests in the case at right. I waited and watched as a steady flow of people moved somberly past the watch and the mural. I made this image when two of them stopped to contemplate the horror of the event, while a third moves past in a blur. The watch has become a symbol that makes an event such as this more personal and real. The mural has become a symbol as well, enlarging the wristwatch to monumental size, thereby magnifying its significance. My own image stops time, just as the watch has. I create symbolic meaning of my own by using a symbol of a symbol as my subject matter.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30
1/4s f/3.2 at 15.5mm iso80 hide exif
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Date/Time23-Mar-2005 19:16:27
MakePanasonic
ModelDMC-FZ30
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length15.5 mm
Exposure Time1/4 sec
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ISO Equivalent80
Exposure Bias0.67
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Metering Modemulti spot (3)
JPEG Quality (6)
Exposure Programprogram (2)
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Phil Douglis06-Aug-2007 16:19
I intended the disconnect between the aesthetics and the message of this picture. The image is lovely to see, but horrific to contemplate. And that is part of the irony here. Thanks, Azlin, for noting it.
Azlin Ahmad06-Aug-2007 11:21
I clicked on this because the image was visually pleasing, and am now left with mixed feelings having read about the violent background leading to this. The combination of the still and moving images of the people are disconcerting, in the same image, time stands still and yet life moves on. Excellent image, Phil, and thank you for sharing this one with us.
Phil Douglis23-Jan-2007 18:27
Thanks, Jenene, for adding new meanings to these blurred and stationary figures. And for summing up the purpose of both the museum and this photograph.
JSWaters23-Jan-2007 16:12
Thanks for directing me to your image after commenting on one of my own, Phil. This is most certainly a somber and reflective statement, not only about a particular horrific moment, but the effect that moment has on those who stop and contemplate the horror and loss afterward. The blurred man represents all those who will view this memorial in the future - the stationary couple represent the feeling of shock at what man can ultimately visit on his fellow man.
Phil Douglis03-Oct-2006 06:06
Thanks, Catriona and Zandra for responding to the symbolism evoked by this image. Time is often associated with thoughts of life and death. To stop time is to stop living. You both are responding to that metaphor here, each in your own vivid way. The image works its way with both of your imaginations, just as I intended. It comes as no surprise to me that all of the comments on this image so far have come from my own on-line students. You are all seeing this image in the context of the principles I am teaching in this cyberbook. You are all articulating the thoughts that motivated me to make this image in this way. Thank you.
Guest 28-Sep-2006 21:06
Like ghosts passing by, stopped in time at 8:15. Perhaps the passing souls of the victims. Remebering, judeging, watching, reflecting...have we learned...or will we keep on walking down our destrucive path...
Guest 24-Sep-2006 02:37
This is a very powerful image Phil. It evokes you to ask questions about the significance of the clock. The words give the real meaning but so much more can be interpreted from the image. I think that the words are important as they give everyone the same information - the other interpretations are left to the individual. The colours are subdued and subtle and do not distract from the real significance of the image. When we see people staring at something we automatically want to stare as well, maybe in fear that we are missing out on something. The two people looking at the display enourage us to also look and think of the significance.
Phil Douglis13-Sep-2006 18:12
Thanks, Ana, for these substantive thoughts. I agree -- if you removed the words that are on the mural, my caption, and all knowledge of World War II from the equation, the image is still a thought provoking study of time, in time. The camera has stopped some in their tracks, and allowed another person to move as a blur through the image. The hands of that clock will never move again -- even the blurred man remains still, a haunting evocation of the power of the still image to embrace a moment in time forever. Now add the context of that horrific moment in 1945, and this image acquires its terrifying meaning.
Ana Carloto O'Shea13-Sep-2006 17:30
I was looking at this photo and I was wondering how would we look at this photo if we didn't know about the event that was behind it... Would some thoughts of those dark moments of mankind be somehow reflected in an otherwise visually apealing image?
So... like a clean slate I've lauched myself into the task of looking closely... The figures in the foreground each of them looking at the mural in such attentive way, imediately make us look there too. From the body language we cannot say much as they all are at different stages, but with the common "awe" factor... The problem is the mural itself... An image of a big clock frozen in time, forever pointing 8:15 has quite an impact on anyone. Instinctivle we want to know what's going on, what happened at that given time. And since we don't see much more than that big clock, why could not this be the 8:15 of something good instead of a 8:15 of something terrible?? And I think this is where the power of photography comes into play, together with the fact it's impossible for someone after a certain age and with an average knowledge of the world to look at something like this with a totally unbiased vision. Yes.. if we don't know much about the history of the world that clock showing the 8:15 there would be nothing more than a photo, but there is a strange darkness in that image, that darkess that we had seen in World War photos... That darkeness makes us look at the photo and sense that something bad lies beyond that hour and if we know that, it's because photos do have an enourmous power, that in our digital days is somehow forgotten.

As for the photo itself... It's fantastic. I love the way you composed it and I imagine that you stood there quietly waiting for the right moment to click ;) The movement of the person that stands close to the mural, strangely makes it come to life and it's almost like that movement would be enough to start the clock again....
It's one of my favourites definitely!!
Congratulations on your perseverance and endless patience to make these kind of shots, not many of us would be there waiting for the right moment to click like I know you do...
Phil Douglis09-Sep-2006 03:06
Thanks, Sonia, for associating the blurred figure with fear and shock. The memory of August 6, 1945, is still very much alive, and museums such as this keep those memories alive in the hopes that an event such as this will never happen again.
Guest 09-Sep-2006 02:01
On top of the frozen time vs the flow of life, I think the blurriness also gives us the shocking nature of the event - everyone shivers~
Phil Douglis19-May-2006 18:21
Thanks, Ruthie, for bringing your very special sensibilities to this somber and thought provoking symbolic image. The entire image is based on a terrible moment stopped in time vs. the flow of life that still swirls around that moment. Such contrasts are at the heart of photography itself. The camera can stop time in its tracks, allowing us the luxury of reflection and thought in the days and years that follow. Photographs actually allow us to overcome the limitations of our memories. In a sense, that is what this image is all about. These people are seen remembering a moment in time through a huge photograph of a wrist watch that has been forever stilled. Ironically, they study the photograph, and not the actual watch itself which is in the case at lower right. And yes, the blurred man does seem to suggest that life, somehow, must go on. But that instant in time, strikingly echoed by this photograph, serves as a grim reminder that must never be forgotten.
ruthemily19-May-2006 09:16
wow, strong image, Phil. time stood still...but the slight blur of the person on the left implies that life must, and does, go on.
Phil Douglis19-Apr-2006 21:51
Another way of interpreting the sad but compelling story expressed by this image. Hiroshima has come to terms with its ghosts by focusing on the future. It uses the past as evidence of the folly and horror of nuclear war.
Tim May19-Apr-2006 18:32
I see the blurred figure as a ghost - the watch, after all, was on the hand of a person - the burred ghost adds the human tragedy to that day that unleashed a horror that is still so current in our world.
Phil Douglis18-Apr-2006 18:39
Good thought, Carol, regarding the blurred figure. We are all in motion. Life itself is motion. And as happened in Hiroshima, life can abruptly come to a stop. The people at right have stopped moving long enough to reflect on the often arbitrary nature of life and death. They were not the only ones. There was a line of people waiting to approach the long stilled wristwatch. In many ways, it was the single most poignant object in the museum.
Carol E Sandgren18-Apr-2006 18:06
I agree with Kal's comment. And the blur of the people passing by suggests to me just how short moments in life are that can change in a heartbeat. I thought the blurring was a brilliant idea. I wonder how many people stop to look, read the headline and check their watch!!?

I think also of today, the 100th anniversary of the 1906 SF earthquake, another short moment in time that changed everything for a great city in a heartbeat.
Phil Douglis17-Apr-2006 18:08
I agree about the words, too -- they add poignant context. Thank you for this comment. It meant a lot to me.
Kal Khogali17-Apr-2006 14:28
One of my favourites of the recent additions, if not the most favourite Phil. Every part of the image has meaning to me...you don't mention the words Phil...but the words are the key context, becasue they stop too....K
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