photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Thirty Six: Adding or subtracting context to clarify or extend meaning > Antique gas pump, Wheeler, Oregon, 2006
previous | next
09-JUN-2006

Antique gas pump, Wheeler, Oregon, 2006

Wheeler, on the south shore of Nehalem Bay, was once a booming timber town. Today it has 400 residents and a few antique shops. One of them was asking $250 for this cobwebbed pump – currently the cost of five or six tanks of gas. I abstract the pump by including only the nozzle nested in its holder. That nozzle is the subject of this picture. Everything is else is context. The cobwebs tell us that this nozzle has not been removed from its holder in a long while. The chipped paint on the pump adds an emphatic echo of age to the image as well. A picture of the old pump itself would be superficial description. Abstracting it down to its nozzle and thereby emphasizing the cobwebs and chipped paint as context, greatly enhances the expressiveness of this image.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30
1/125s f/4.0 at 7.4mm iso80 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
share
Phil Douglis21-Jun-2007 21:31
I had no intention of expressing conjugal activity here, Ceci, but now that you've mentioned it, I can't see anything else! "Oddly sexual" is a gentle way of putting it. Others might phrase the essence of your sexual concept more crudely: "Big Oil is screwing us -- gasoline will soon be so expensive that there will many a pump gathering cobwebs like this."
Guest 21-Jun-2007 18:16
This is an amazing, oddly sexual abstract photo, full of time's passage, an older design esthetic, and crumbling, vibrant paint. It's the perfect joining of the male and the female, even to color -- quite a stunning little scene!
Phil Douglis22-May-2007 22:20
My cyberbook is meant to be absorbed slowly but regularly, over a period of time, Gil. It now has more than 1,600 images and commentaries in it, with more than 13,000 comments and responses. And more images are coming -- I will be shooting in the Bay Area next month, and in August I head to Malaysia, Singapore, and China (for the third time.) Take it all in, image by image and pixel by pixel.
Gil Hidalgo22-May-2007 22:12
The reason it took me so long it's your own fault. You have way too many images and galleries. I would have to quit my job and stay home for 10 weeks just to view half your images. You also make me look like a slacker. Slow down and smell the pixels!
I will take more time today and look over your new scriptures..oh wait, I mean images.

Regards,


Gil
Phil Douglis22-May-2007 21:46
I was wondering when someone would get around to commenting on this image -- which has been posted now for almost a year. Thanks for being the first to note its relevance to the cost of gas, and yes, I've reduced the pump down to a cob-webbed portion of a nozzle by abstraction, its condition is incongruous, and the human value of abandonment is written all over it.
Gil Hidalgo22-May-2007 17:03
This could be prophetic. A sign of things to come with the energy crisis we have. I would expect nothing less from a photography prophet. (according to the book of Phill-ipians)
Once again Phil, this image displays all of the elements you expect and demand in a picture. Abstraction,incongruity and human value.

Your disciple...who is still work in progress.

Gil
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