Exploring the past, Jerome, Arizona, 2006 by Phil Douglis

Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Thirty-Five: How style and interpretation combine as expression > Exploring the past, Jerome, Arizona, 2006

previous | next


20-MAY-2006

Exploring the past, Jerome, Arizona, 2006

Abstraction plays a significant role in my style. By showing less in my pictures, I hope to do more to the imaginations of my viewers. Whenever I can, I also try to create incongruous relationships, expressing human values to interpret subject matter and convey meaning. All of this is happening here. I caught my reflection in a window of an old house as I explored the streets of this crumbling 1890s copper mining town. Shooting from the waist, I was able to create an abstract portrait of myself as a silhouette. It incongruously merges with the red patterns of a Victorian era curtain hanging just behind the window. An even more abstract figure is softly imprinted in the aging paint next to the window. My wide-brimmed hat moves my abstracted red silhouette back into time, while the incongruous figure on the wall adds context, creating a ghostly effect.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30
1/50s f/3.6 at 13.9mm iso80 hide exif

Full EXIF Info
Date/Time	20-May-2006 11:14:54
Make	Panasonic
Model	DMC-FZ30
Flash Used	No
Focal Length	13.9 mm
Exposure Time	1/50 sec
Aperture	f/3.6
ISO Equivalent	80
Exposure Bias
White Balance	(10)
Metering Mode	multi spot (3)
JPEG Quality	(6)
Exposure Program	program (2)
Focus Distance

other sizes: small medium large original auto

previous | next

Phil Douglis		14-Jun-2006 17:11
Thanks, Armin, for mentioning mood here. The mood of the image is intended to emotionally stir the viewer -- as Kal mentioned, it brings the timeless feel of desert heat to us and makes us loosen our collars.

arminb		08-Jun-2006 19:20
I'm not a person of many words, so I just want to say: splendid - compo, colors... and mood created in the viewer!

Phil Douglis		29-May-2006 05:33
It is so fitting that you choose to comment on this photograph, Christine. If not for you, it would never had been made, and the lessons we might take from it might never had been learned. It was you and your mother who came to Arizona to work with me, and who asked to come to this particular part of the state to shoot. And once we got to Jerome, it was you who spotted these very buildings and made them the object of our pictures. So in essence, it was you, Christine, who led us to this very image, as well as to the wonderful photographs you were to make with your own camera. I thank you for all of this, and for recalling the effort I put into the shot and the pleasure I received from making it. So much of photography is a matter of pure serendipity, and it's up to us to take advantage of what we might find along the way. Without your help, I would have not found this particular window or idea. Thanks again for making it possible and for taking the time to share your feelings with me. Phil

Guest		29-May-2006 04:37
Phil, You friends should know how much time and pleasure you took for this picture. Being at a distance taking other pictures, I was wondering what you were photographying. I remember how happy you were about the results. I like the warm tones that came out of it. Christine

Phil Douglis		27-May-2006 18:29
You always make me see my own photographs in fresh and revealing ways, Jen. Thanks for allowing this image to trigger your imagination. It acquires a new life within your creative mind -- and that is the final stage of an expressive photograph. What matters to me is where you take my image, and you've made much of it here. You are right, Jen -- every photographer expresses ideas in his or her own way, in a style that reflects how they think and see and feel. And even more important, as you say, each of us has our own way of interpreting the images we see. I also am delighted that you see similarities between this image and my reflected image of Memling's Eyes. Each of these pictures are abstract, mysterious, rich in color connotation, and haunting in effect. I am glad you recognize my style at work in both of them.

Jennifer Zhou		27-May-2006 14:55
I am amazed to find out this is a self-portrait, it is like a printing of a passerby walking under a tree. It reminds me so much of another of your photograph:http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/45570127 , maybe it is the color, the abstraction and the emotions link them togeter, but I see in them the photographic style of your own, as soon as I saw those pictures, I knew they are yours... After the amazement, the picture brings me to a sentimental states. The abstracted figure is so mysterious and oppressive. It is like he has so many stories to tell but couldn't know where to start. It is also like he is existed only as a shadow, and all his life and stories were already gone with the wind and would never come back. Just like the obscure drawing on anothe side of the wall, it is trying to express something to us. Everybody/everything has its own way to express and each one of us has our own way to understand it. Thank you so much Phil for openning my eyes to see the charms about photography, as it is in this photo!

Phil Douglis		25-May-2006 22:21
Thanks as always, Celia, for interpreting this image for us. You grasp my intentions well, and identify the components of my photographic style that I use to interpret this subject. I particularly like the way you talk here about the role of the colors I draw on to bring out the rough and tumble character of the old mining town, and the blood, sweat and tears of the minors. The minors, however, did not live in the town itself. They lived in nearby Haynes, featured elsewhere in this gallery. Yet the red here suits the era. It is a very Victorian color, and it was also a color widely used in the bordellos that once flourished here. I have no idea if this house was a bordello or not -- but it might well have been. Thanks also for your observations on the design and composition of the image. I agree that the Mondrian-like sense of order I have imposed on this photograph gives everything its place. Jerome was not an anarchic old west shoot-em up kind of town. It was a company town, and things apparently ran very efficiently here. And yes, abstraction is at the core of my photographic style. I do try here to say more by showing viewers less, and allowing their imaginations to make of it what they will.

Cecilia Lim		25-May-2006 21:59
I love the way you created an abstract symbol that represents in essence what life must have been like in Jerome in the 1890s. The mottled textures and sepia, dirt-like tones lend a very grunge feel to the image, which I feel projects the idea of the rough-and-tumble way of life that must have existed in this copper mining town. The equally dominant red also represents to me, the passion, the blood, sweat & tears that the miners must have felt in their pursuit of success in these mines. Yet that hint of the sophisticated,intricate patterns on a drape reminds us that there was some sense of decency and humanity here too during its industrious existence. I think you've composed this image brilliantly too, paying careful attention to how you use the window frame to divide your colours. It is very Mondrian-esque, as in Piet Mondrian, the artist who was obsessed with lines and compartmentalization and order. By creating this Mondrian effect, I get the feeling that despite the rough-and-tumble world out here, there was at least some sense of law and order - perhaps a necccesity for survival here. And the haunting sillhouette of a cowboy imprinted on the building offers the perfect context for the story of life in Jerome. You use abstraction extremely well Phil - it's a style you use time and time again with much success, often creating very thought provoking metaphors in them. It's no wonder why many of us here love this image and find it one of the most powerful and memorable images among this gallery.

Phil Douglis		24-May-2006 22:09
I was hoping you would make the connection between your image and mine. And you did! I said in the introduction to this gallery that "we are what we photograph and we photograph what we are" but sometimes we can invigorate our perceptions by going against the grain, and try to do the very opposite. I wanted to change myself as much as I could here -- I did not want you to see me as Phil, but rather one of the ghosts that no doubt still stalk Jerome's haunted homes. On the other hand, we are all rooted in the past, and in that sense, this image is an appropriate message. Thanks, Jenene, for this comment.

JSWaters		24-May-2006 21:50
The definition of serendipity for me, Phil. Having just read your comment on my imagehttp://www.pbase.com/jswaters/image/60671871 where you nudge me to work against the grain, I visit this image to find your visual nudge as well. Your ghostly reflection represents the parts of ourselves we are waiting to discover and yet, who you (and we) are is firmly rooted in the past that Tim speaks of. The warmth of the textured wall and the comfort of the tangible window will ease our journey of self discovery.

Phil Douglis		24-May-2006 18:48
You are right, Kal. I did not set out to make a self portrait. My reflection did not look at all like me. I felt as if I was looking at someone else in that window -- the ghostly cowboy that both you and Tim see. Thanks for adding the observation about the desert feel. Red, yellow, reflection and heat -- all four are here as well.

Kal Khogali		24-May-2006 14:11
Yes I saw what you and Tim saw. The whole composition and color here create a desert feel, heat and a moment of reflection (pun intended!). My favourite of all your self portraits...though I appreciate that was not the objective. Rgds, Kal

Phil Douglis		24-May-2006 01:54
Yes, I saw myself as ghostly cowboy here as well. Red is a Victorian color, too. Thanks for the accolade. I must give some of the credit for this image to my tutorial student Christine, who saw these houses from a distance and insisted on walking down there.

Tim May		24-May-2006 01:33
Your reflection is an optical illusion. I first saw it as a ghost of a cowboy with his back to us - sitting in the world that was. But it is the color of the window that shouts at me in this image - it speaks of the fire and chemistry that sustained the mining town. If you won't accept "great" let's try "classic." A wonderful image.

Phil Douglis		24-May-2006 00:12
I am glad you were surprised. I know I was.

Guest		23-May-2006 23:26
I know the objective of your pictures, don't worry, but it just surprised me the complexity of it and the final resoult. At the first glance it realy surprised me.

Phil Douglis		23-May-2006 23:24
Thanks, Mikel, for responding to this image. I don't think of my images as being "great" or not so great. I think of them here as lessons, and if this image can help others understand the elements of style and how they affect the nature of interpretation, I will be happy. But I am delighted that you like it. Such praise, coming from a professional photojournalist, is greatly valued.

Guest		23-May-2006 23:14
Hi Phil, this picture has all it has to have, the biggest point that I see here is your own reflection. It was a great Idea to shoot lowering the camera for it not to be evident that the person reflected in the window was the same photographer. On the other hand the silouette of your cowboy hat situates it in time together with the victorian courtain and in space. Anyway, I basicaly feel the same way as you doe for what I see in the text but one thing I have to add is that it is a great picture, I at least love it. :)

Type your message and click Add Comment

It is best to login or register first but you may post as a guest. Enter an optional name and contact email address. Name
Name Email
help	private comment

Type your message and click Add Comment

It is best to login or register first but you may post as a guest. Enter an optional name and contact email address. Name
Name Email
help	private comment