Methodist Church, Bodie State Historic Park, California, 2006 photo

Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty One: Ruins and wrecks: photographing the rusted, busted past > Methodist Church, Bodie State Historic Park, California, 2006

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21-OCT-2006

Methodist Church, Bodie State Historic Park, California, 2006

This church, abandoned since the 1940s, is seen here as in a dream. The clouded window of a neighboring house offered me a frame to put it deeply into the past. I made this image just after dawn, exposing on the pinkish sky behind the church, letting the walls of the room I am standing in go black, except for the dim outlines of a rocking chair at the base of the image. The old windows, dating back into the 19th century, make this ghost town church seem wavy and diffused, and ultimately less real.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50
1/20s f/2.8 at 7.4mm iso100 hide exif

Full EXIF Info
Date/Time	21-Oct-2006 06:56:02
Make	Panasonic
Model	DMC-FZ50
Flash Used	No
Focal Length	7.4 mm
Exposure Time	1/20 sec
Aperture	f/2.8
ISO Equivalent	100
Exposure Bias	-0.66
White Balance
Metering Mode	multi spot (3)
JPEG Quality
Exposure Program	program (2)
Focus Distance

other sizes: small medium large original auto

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Phil Douglis		06-Nov-2006 18:33
And that is exactly what I wanted to convey, Ai Li. A sense of emptyness, so dark and desolate that it is almost unbearable. That is the essence of this place, Ai Li -- it is a dead town, a setting rich in ironic contrasts. There was great wealth here once, and very little faith. There is little evidence of wealth left in Bodie, yet the abandoned church remains, floating in a void of blackness.

AL		06-Nov-2006 09:47
A beautiful yet sad paint-like picture you gave us, Phil. A frame within frame, as we looked at our screen, into the room, out of the window, recollecting the memories and the faith. The sense of emptiness and distance is almost unbearable.

Phil Douglis		31-Oct-2006 18:25
Bodie is a desolate place, Jenene. There is a wonderful quote that sums up what both you and this image are saying: "Goodbye God, I've gone to Bodie."

JSWaters		31-Oct-2006 17:15
The heavy, soundless feeling of desolation saturates this image, Phil. Without nature's cycle of growth and green to give it life, it sags with despondency. Not even the spiritual spire through the window can lift this place up. Jenene

Phil Douglis		30-Oct-2006 06:55
Silence would be another good title for this image, Azlin. History speaks, sometimes loudly and sometimes softly. This image is certainly the latter. Thanks for coming to this image.

Phil Douglis		30-Oct-2006 05:46
Lost and Found would a good title-- the presence of a church in this place is an incongruity, regardless. The darkness surrounding it could well suggest the black deeds that took place within sight of this steeple. Thank you, Carol, for your thoughts on this image.

Azlin Ahmad		30-Oct-2006 05:45
I can feel history weighing in on me. I like the inclusion of the (barely discernible)chair in the foreground, it makes me feel as if this is a place that time has forgotten. What I can imagine, looking at this, is the deafening silence of a place that once used to be alive- I don't imagine the church bells ringing anymore. I love this photo! Voted.

Carol E Sandgren		30-Oct-2006 04:38
I wonder how many murderers and criminals of that time looked out this window and saw the :"good" outside? Probably not enough to cramp their style though. You could call this image "Lost and Found.

Phil Douglis		29-Oct-2006 06:20
The beauty of Bodie is that although it is being allowed to decay, the state of California repairs just enough each year to arrest the decay and prevent these buildings from recycling back into the earth. I see the metaphor of change in here, too -- and the time warp you mention, Ceci, is there as well. There is also a sense of fragile faith here -- while some of its residents were devout, others murdered, stole, and cheated. It was, like the old west itself, a schizophrenic place. Some of that is in this image as well -- the glowing church framed in darkness, with the empty chair symbolizing its lost souls.

Guest		29-Oct-2006 05:52
This could be an Andrew Wyeth painting with its muted, water color feeling; the stark cross in the window is the perfect symbol for the church, and the sagging glass tells of humankind's brief and inexact imprint on the land. Soon all this will have been recycled back into the earth as though it never existed. Your eye has found a metaphor for the only thing we can count on -- change -- and it's a wonderful time warp of a picture besides.

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