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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty One: Ruins and wrecks: photographing the rusted, busted past > Hidden automobile, Benton Hot Springs, California, 2006
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19-OCT-2006

Hidden automobile, Benton Hot Springs, California, 2006

This beauty of this wreck rests in its obscurity. We discover the car in this image, rather than see it. Left to rust in the woods, it once served as transportation. Today it serves nobody. Early morning light lends a strikingly beautiful context to a rusting vehicle. It seems to glow in the warmth of its browns, yellows, and greens, instead of moldering in decay. It is at once abstract, incongruous, and rich in its associated human values. It was once somebody’s pride. Today, it is forgotten, lost, and ignored.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50
1/250s f/5.6 at 17.3mm iso100 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time19-Oct-2006 09:16:10
MakePanasonic
ModelDMC-FZ50
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length17.3 mm
Exposure Time1/250 sec
Aperturef/5.6
ISO Equivalent100
Exposure Bias-0.66
White Balance
Metering Modemulti spot (3)
JPEG Quality
Exposure Programprogram (2)
Focus Distance

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Phil Douglis24-Jan-2007 05:19
Thanks, Iris, for the metaphorical suggestion. We all have our little secrets. I am sure this car did as well.
Iris Maybloom (irislm)24-Jan-2007 00:07
This car seems to have made an adaptation to its environment that hopes to defy discovery (until Tim, that is). We know it represents a page out of the past due to the suggestive shapes we see, but it's a past that wants to remain hidden. It's sort of a metaphor for all of us who have parts of our past that we want to keep hidden.
Phil Douglis06-Nov-2006 18:29
Yes, Ai Li-- nothing escapes Tim's incredible vision. There is considerable incongruity in an image of an abandoned car that is trying to hide from us at the very moment we make a photograph that will viewed by thousands around the world.
AL06-Nov-2006 09:32
Due to its little detail and the glowing warm colors fo the woods, it's hard to see it being old and forgotten. Felt as if it chose to hide and try disguising itself from the present, perhaps not willing to be move on with time. Not intended to be seen but it failed to escape from Tim's eyes :-)
Phil Douglis29-Oct-2006 06:25
Thanks to you as well, Ceci -- as you can see from my previous comment, it was Tim who first saw it there in bushes, not me. That is the advantages of photographing with good friends -- we are often pointing out things we see to each other. And yes, there is an echo of the clandestine here as well, plus the overwhelming presence of nature swallowing and digesting the work of man.
Phil Douglis29-Oct-2006 06:22
Thanks, Tim for commenting on this image. It was you who first noticed it there in the bushes and pointed it out to me. And yes it does peek out from the past, and speaks quietly of those who once may have depended on it.
Guest 29-Oct-2006 06:02
At first glance this looked almost like an animal obscured in a little copse, but of course it's not. Except for the style details, this could be a modern vehicle lying in wait for a chase, or an apprehension. The shrubbery has nearly camoflaged the car so that time's depredation can't be fully appreciated, which makes it feel that there is something clandestine about the mix of plants and metal--as though the FBI was staking out Capone, waiting for the moment to strike. And yes, it's easy to think back half a century and realize how what was once of enormous value and use is today simply being reclaimed by nature. What an eye, to have seen it at all!
Tim May27-Oct-2006 20:55
Yet, it peaks out at us from the past - reminding me of the people for whom this was transportation.
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