Isolation, Phoenix, Arizona, 2007 by Phil Douglis

Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Three: Expressing human values > Isolation, Phoenix, Arizona, 2007


08-MAY-2007

Isolation, Phoenix, Arizona, 2007

Isolation is a human value. It is the state of being separate. Without the presence of family or friends, many older people must deal with a sense of isolation every day. To express that human value, I photographed the face of a person who was sitting in an alcove in the entry hallway of a senior citizens residence. Although others are near, the walls and depth of the alcove create a sense of isolation. The light source is coming from a doorway on the right. I used my spot meter to expose for the highlights on one side of the face and the glasses. The face seems to float in alone in the darkness. The heavily textured edge of the alcove wall offers the additional symbolic context of rough and aged plaster, intensifying the sense of isolation here.

Leica V-Lux 1
1/20s f/3.6 at 60.8mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto

previous | next

Phil Douglis		30-May-2007 21:09
Thank you a thousand times over for this eloquent commentary, Celia -- you demonstrate the way an expressive photo can work on the human imagination, and in doing so, you weave a word picture that is as moving as the image we see before us. I would have never made this image if not for the way the woman was seated deep within an alcove, and the way the light and shadow sculpt both the person and the space around her. Rusty was shooting by my side, and his comment here illuminates the process of making this image, just as your comment defines the effect of the image itself on a viewer. I, too, felt the sense of isolation and longing here. I did not feel that this image went as far as suggesting that she is an outcast from society, however. While isolated from the outside world here, she sits in the lobby, engaging in conversation, and maintaining links of friendship with her fellow residents. Yes -- she lives alone, walled off from the life of a city. But in that isolation, she finds her own cocoon of security and yes, even friendship.

Cecilia Lim		30-May-2007 20:56
Phil, you work with light and shadow magnificently to tell her story of isolation here. You envelope her in darkness, with nothing in the background, echoing the emptiness that probably exists in much of her life now. Her floating face is very unsettling, expressing a sense of being in limbo like a lost soul. Yet her face emerges from the darkness into the soft light, suggesting to us that she longs for something better. I also like the way you used the entire width of the alcove wall to split your image abruptly. To me, it acts as a symbol for all the obstacles that could be stopping this elderly woman from having a life she desires. Could it be her health, financial reasons, lack of confidence, abandonment by her own family? There's so much you leave out of the image for our imagination, fuelling the mystery of this elderly woman. Your deliberate exclusion of any visual detail about her also makes her even more insignificant, which stresses that she's become an outcast of society, let to live out her days in darkness, forgotten and alone, universal human values that we all hope will never find our lives.

Phil Douglis		22-May-2007 21:43
Thanks for this thoughtful comment, Tricia. You are right -- when we shoot a portrait, we try to express a human value. In this case, the state of isolation. This picture goes beyond showing just an elderly face. It is an image about feelings -- being separated, walled off, isolated, alone. Yet somehow that face is still glowing.

flowsnow		22-May-2007 08:08
I like this shot as the combination of the concrete texture and the human creases speaks it all in your narration of this image. I always had the impression of taking old people shots as a symbol to indicate the depth of knowledge they have to share with the world. The more wrinkles, the more stories of his/her life she/he has to share with the world. (LOL) You capture of this shot really makes me think deeper than just shooting a portrait shot of a elderly person, it's the message you want to tell others of what he/she has to say. This is not a shot to emphasis age through the texture of skin but rather something more than the eye meets. It's the state of isolation as a human value.

Phil Douglis		14-May-2007 01:44
You are correct, Jenene -- photography is normally a solitary pursuit. But as you note so well, in my tutorials, I am able to shoot alongside of my students and they shoot alongside of me. I show them where I am going with an image and they often share their attempts with me as we "work" an image together. Such ongoing dialogue is, for me anyway, the essence of teaching, and it is only possible in a one-one-tutorial context such as my session here with Rusty. It has a wonderful effect on the subjects as well -- they only see us chatting, rather than photographing, particularly if we are using cameras with flip out viewfinders that allow us to shoot from the waist. That is what both Rusty and I were using here. I enjoyed your summation of the image -- it does indeed offer a golden moment that creates a metaphorical strength of spirit.

JSWaters		14-May-2007 00:39
It's interesting to read Rusty's account of your methods here Phil and how the two of you managed to become less visible than if you were alone. I rarely shoot with someone else, mostly because I don't want to hold anyone up. But in this type of situation, with a teaching partner such as yourself, I can imagine the great benefit. It had to be an invaluable lesson for Rusty as you 'worked' the image. As for the image itself, I'm particularly drawn to the symbolism provided by the abstraction. The woman in her advanced age has become the observer instead of the paricipant - but she still holds her head up, eyes steady, with the golden glow of her strong spirit lighting up around her. Jenene

Phil Douglis		12-May-2007 16:05
You are right, Kal -- the wall can be seen as an age marker, and the golden light viewed as a metaphor a golden age.

Kal Khogali		12-May-2007 10:09
I like the separartion of the photo and the light, which is golden symbolising the stage of her age. A very private, moody image. K

Phil Douglis		11-May-2007 23:15
Thanks, Rusty, for giving us a very detailed and quite rare look at the making of photograph. It is not often that someone has described my approach to making expressive photographs in such an insightful way. You do not "wax overly long at all." Everything you say here can be helpful to those who come to this image in search of photographic knowledge. And that is why I post these images -- not to display my imagery for its own sake, but to offer help to those who are in search of it. I like your term "subcommunication" -- the groundwork that often must be done before an image can even be made. I always try to act with confidence and kindness when I am dealing with authority. Security people are there to protect property and people. I am there as a communicator, a story teller, and a teacher. We try to find common ground. So yes, I behave as if I belong there, and what I am doing is routine. I don't ask "please, sir, may I make pictures?" I simply walk over, say that we are visiting, wave at my camera, nod, and walk on. The fact that you were with me, and also carrying a camera, helped dissolve any potential suspicion. As for tools, you are correct -- a camera with a long lens and flip out viewfinder is much less threatening than a camera held in front of my face. The Leica V-Lux-1s that both of us were using can zoom all the way out to 420mm. In this case, I was shooting at a focal length of nearly 300mm, so that I would not be "in the face" of my subject. And yes, shooting with a perceived "assistant" can be, as you say, very useful. Two people casually chatting away creates a wonderful "cover" for photography. I doubt if any people in that lobby, including security officers, realized what we were actually doing, or even cared. They had no need to care. We were there as student and teacher. We did no harm, and hopefully, what we came up with not only helped you learn, but will help others learn as well through exposure on this site. I continued talking with you the whole time I was making this picture, pointing out the effect of the backlight, and the way the spot metering was helping me to abstract this subject, and all the while looking down into my viewfinder and making picture after picture until I found the moment in light, time, and space that worked best. As for the location, yes -- this kind of environment, where the past is still alive, where friendly people live, where art and architecture offer context for expressive imagery, is not only an excellent place to make thoughtful images. It is, as you point out, a unique part of a city's history. It's the real thing, and so are it's people. Thank you, Rusty, for coming to Phoenix once again to work one-on-one with me. And thank you for giving us a literate summary of some of what you came away with.

russellt		11-May-2007 22:31
a sensitive and sympathetic portrait in beautiful soft glowy light. I was there as student, photographer, observer, and also somewhat the beard. so I will wax perhaps overly long on some of the factors which I consider essential or necessary or at least helpful to such an accomplishment, which may not be so obvious from just looking at the photo. subcommunication. as we walked into the building there was a security guard who asked what we were doing, in a not particularly friendly or even neutral way. phil said something like "we're visitors" while pointing to his camera. more important than the words, his tonality, gestures, and inner beliefs said that this was ok, this was normal. the guard said "o ok" and waived us thru. if it was me doing the talking, feeling not quite right about things, for whatever reasons, I'm not so sure we'd have gotten thru, and therefore there would have been no photo. incidentally the residents there seemed to enjoy our company. the right tool. I don't want to get overly technical, photographers in general seem to me to get overly technical, but I don't think there's a lot of cameras out there where it would have been possible to take such a photo. hcb wrote something along lines that if you make too much of a production or a nuisance of yourself, the birdie flies away. slrs clicking away would not have worked. we were maybe 20 or 30 feet away from a security desk and also the woman, and the clicks would have created too much of a distraction. the same for cameras that you need to bring up to your face; it may not exactly be like pointing a rifle... rangefinders have many admirable qualities, but a long lens was helpful here to avoid walking up and spoiling the mood and also to create a sense of isolation. the quality of light was quite wonderful but there wasn't much of it. dslr mirror slap perhaps costs you a stop or two of exposure. a tripod would be no solution here. social proof. it is somehow more normal for 2 people to be having a converation the architecture or the phoenix suns and taking photos, than for one person to be taking photos. slim aarons I think was quoted somewhere about the wonderful efficacy of bringing an assistant along, in his case a pretty one. it's social validation; it takes the edge off anything weird or threatening. oddly enuf we were practically invisible, part of the woodwork. again I'll note that the mood was very fragile while phil worked the photo, and the security guards were right there. location, location, location. somehow or other the ambiance of a place often registers itself very clearly in photos. which is why movies are shot on location, and why as I understand it several movies were shot in this particular building in the old days. the residents liked to talk about the old days, and the stars that stayed there, and the ghosts. you're just going to have a much better batting average taking photos in such a place, as opposed to going down to the local mall. or going into a studio with technically perfect equipment. there must be locations like this, with beautiful light, scattered around everywhere, altho I have no idea where they are or even how to go about finding them. I would have virtually no chance of getting off a plane and stumbling across anything like this in phoenix. I suppose you could follow the trail of other photographers, if you don't get crowded out...

Phil Douglis		11-May-2007 17:21
You are right, Mo. I sense the same things. She is a survivor. Thank you for seeing the character expressed in this image.

monique jansen		11-May-2007 07:35
Love this image, Phil - dark, tragic, showing human frailty. Her expression gives us hope at the same time

Guest		11-May-2007 00:07
This image is intense. The way you darkened her face as if in hiding creates a moody feel to the image. The darkness fits so perfectly with title you selected. Her expression though is even stronger. She looks lost, lonely, and upset. The reflection of the outside world on her left eye conveys her longing and where she wants to go or be. Very powerful. This image really speaks to me.

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