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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty-Eight: Telling stories with pictures > Wedding photograph, Pulau Ubin, Singapore, 2007
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31-AUG-2007

Wedding photograph, Pulau Ubin, Singapore, 2007

On our walk around Ubin Island, a rural suburb just off the shore of Singapore, we visited a home that seemed to be abandoned. Its rambling, overgrown grounds resembled an outdoor attic. I found this faded, soggy wedding picture on the ground behind the house, stacked underneath a dirty plastic garbage bag. The incongruously smiling bride and its idealized background could tell a story of unrealized dreams, a failed marriage, discarded memories, or even tragic loss. I de-saturated my own image in post processing, fading the picture to make it echo the faded colors of the wedding picture, still wearing it’s ornate frame. Other framed photographs, possibly of the same people, peek out from below – reinforcing the sad story of the wedding picture and garbage bag that overwhelm them.

Leica V-Lux 1
1/50s f/3.2 at 21.6mm iso100 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time31-Aug-2007 13:20:36
MakeLeica
ModelV-LUX 1
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length21.6 mm
Exposure Time1/50 sec
Aperturef/3.2
ISO Equivalent100
Exposure Bias-0.33
White Balance
Metering Modemulti spot (3)
JPEG Quality
Exposure Programprogram (2)
Focus Distance

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Phil Douglis10-Mar-2008 00:25
Thanks, Sun Han, for the info on this Chinese ghost town. This is why we asked our host in Singapore, Pbase artist Ai Li, to take us to a place where ghosts still rustle the bushes. She chose to take us to Pulau Ubin, and this was the result.
Guest 09-Mar-2008 22:29
there's a type of fusion architecture/ruin in some southern village in china that always haunts me with its charms and ghosts, they are products of those kuli workers who emmigrant to southeast asia and america dated back to 19th century. i happened to spot this sort of forsaken village in Kinmen (Amoi) island... but most famous village of all is the Kai Ping villages in Guangdong province.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiping
Phil Douglis08-Mar-2008 20:57
I love your interpretation, Sun Han -- particularly you view that this image brings ghosts back to life, and make the dead (if they are dead) livelier than the living. And thanks, too, for noting the double role of desaturation here -- it brings to mind both old photos and old dresses.
Guest 08-Mar-2008 04:07
great picture! i had same experience encountering old wedding photos in some forsaked old houses where oversea chinese immigrants left decades ago. very melancholic and notalgic mood a black/white photo at a abondoned spot can evoke. grammatically, it's also a double play of 'the dead and the past', it brings the ghost back to life, making the dead becomes ever livelier than the living. as for the desaturated knotted plastic bag- that's a magic touch to the double frame double play of the old photos. as if an off-toned pale wedding dress of its own dirt and folds that hides away the baggage of this lost family.
Phil Douglis17-Oct-2007 18:21
Thanks, Tim, for bringing up that mountainous and forested backdrop to this wedding picture. As you note, those mountains are definitely not local. My guess is that it was a photographers stock "fantasy" backdrop, which, in retrospect, adds an ironic twist. As you thought, this could well be an iconic dream that ends up in the trash.
Tim May17-Oct-2007 16:52
There is a juxtaposition here that grabs me in both my unused image of this scene and yours - it is the mountains in the background of the wedding picture on the right. I don't think those mountains exist in Singapore. They lead me to all kinds of questions - was it a honeymoon, was it a photographers backdrop, was it where they lived when they were married, does it reflect a dream that has now ended up in the trash. I love pictures that make me think.
Phil Douglis03-Oct-2007 18:10
Thanks for adding such valuable context, Celia, to this image. By using the economic background of Pulau Ubin as context, this image becomes an even stronger symbol, representing an entire community, not just a single marriage.Thanks, too, for your analysis of the image itself. You are right -- I deliberately zoomed in to create intimacy, and desaturated the image during post processing to express fading hopes, dreams, and expectations. Your words will add immeasurably to the effect of this image, Celia.
Cecilia Lim03-Oct-2007 11:43
What a "gem" you discovered at this abandoned house Phil! I think it is the strongest image you made at Pulau Ubin - Not only because it is a poignant image, but because it's a symbolic expression of the state of affairs that has caused the demise of a once thriving community on the island. Many families, some being pioneers, came to this uninhabited island to begin a new life. While the rest of Singapore developed at a feverish pace, the government neglected their constant pleas for piped water and electricity. The quarry which was at the economic heart of the island eventually closed down and the government issued eviction orders. Some families who had been there for generations were uprooted and left the island, and only a handful of its original inhabitants remain. These families who came with new hope had to throw all their dreams away when they left. These happy wedding photos in the trash speak all this to me. It goes to the heart of Pulau Ubin's story.

I love that you zoomed-in tight to let us get intimate and personal with these couples' plight; that you filled much of your frame with garbage to juxtapose and stress its sorry state; and that you used desaturated colours to intentionally express the fading of happiness and life. I know you made all these decisions intentionally to craft your image into a story that would tug at our heartstrings. Which is why I am at awe at your amazing gift for photography! Thank you Phil for this deeply moving pictorial story!
Phil Douglis01-Oct-2007 22:33
I had the same thoughts as I made this image. Did they move and accidentally leave these behind, and the new owner is throwing them out? Or did the marriage end, and the images proved too painful to keep? Yes, it would be nice to have the answers. On the other hand, mysteries such as this can stir imaginations such as yours. Any image that causes a viewer to think, feel, wonder and imagine, is of value. As it turns out, not only my image is expressive. In this case, the discarded photographs also become, because of their context, expressive as well. Thanks, Cyndy, for provoking these thoughts.
Guest 01-Oct-2007 18:32
What a poignant image. It asks so many questions: Who where these people? Why would someone discard these portraits? What happened to the happy couple "thrown out in the trash?" It makes me want to go and knock on someone's door to get the answers...
Phil Douglis29-Sep-2007 23:51
I am glad you find my desaturation to be effective here, Ceci. I rarely, if ever do this. But I found desaturating the colors in both this image and "Under Cover" athttp://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/86307173 helped me tell the story I wanted to tell more effectively. In this case, it does indeed underscore the fading hopes and dreams symbolized by the wedding photograph. And yes, it also helps underscore the fragile bonds that link one person to another. Just as in "Under Cover" the desaturation made the underpass even more of a flat, gray world, contrasting to the hint of sun at its fringes. In other words, when we use desaturation or any post-processing technique,we should have a reason for doing it that helps us say what we are trying to say. Yet when I look at many galleries here on pbase, I see photographers using desaturation in all of their pictures --as if it were their "signature." And using form for the sake of form alone can distort or even destroy the desired communication objective.
Guest 29-Sep-2007 17:34
A most touching and poignant image, Phil, and so perfectly described that there is literally nothing to add to it. Except that I like your choice of desaturation to suggest the fading of hopes and dreams, and the fragility of human relations. Wonderful!
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