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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Thirty Six: Adding or subtracting context to clarify or extend meaning > Plastic folk art, Clatskanie, Oregon, 2006
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08-JUN-2006

Plastic folk art, Clatskanie, Oregon, 2006

Finding or taking subjects out of their normal context and putting them into another will often create an incongruous result. Such is the case here. This roadside shop sells plastic decorative and religious figures molded in Mexico to tourists passing through Clatskanie. Somebody had placed a religious icon directly below a pair of large seagulls standing on massive pilings. By isolating this triad in my frame, I take them all out of the context of the shop itself, and create an incongruously surreal three-way altar setting that would not be apparent to someone seeing them in the context of the entire shop.

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Phil Douglis13-Aug-2006 19:35
And that is what I had hoped to get out of you, Christine. At least a big smile and perhaps a chuckle. Anything sitting below a sea gull is fair game, right?
Christine P. Newman13-Aug-2006 15:36
Phil, At first, I just did not think of the religious/blasphemy aspect of it. I found the commentaries by Iris and Cecilia interesting, adding a new dimension tothe thinking process. But I must say that for me, there is nothing like the surprise effect and the resulting chuckle, pure pleasure.
Phil Douglis04-Jul-2006 18:28
Thanks, as always, for your honest words. You are willing to say what Iris feared to say. Such pilings are these, in real life, would be covered with gull poop, and so would this statue. And yes, I do love to discover those "quirky eccentricities" you mention, because they often give a place much of its character. Quirks are often incongruities, and incongruities are usually found in unusual subject/context relationships such as this.
Cecilia Lim04-Jul-2006 11:04
The master of incongruity strikes again! I love the image because of the shock value it contains - a religious relic not surrounded by angels, but instead by winged creatures of another kind that look like they could crap on her any minute!

I also love that you pay attention to details like that in your travel photography because I feel that you don't really know a place till you see its quirky eccentricities. By drawing attention to this town with its funny name and roadside shop where religion and kitsch come together, you express its uniqueness that is both fascinating and endearing! And this to me is the kind of stuff that lures genuinely curious travellers, which makes this image a piece of great travel photography!
Phil Douglis29-Jun-2006 00:19
I was waiting for someone to post thoughts on this one, Iris. I left it up to the interpretation of the viewer. Some will see a shrine, while others may take a far less pious view. That's what expressive photography is intended to do -- to nourish the imaginations of those who look at it.
Iris Maybloom (irislm)28-Jun-2006 21:21
This image certainly has me thinking, but not talking, lest I be accused of blasphemy!!
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