Shy child, Beijing, China, 2007 by Phil Douglis

Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Fifteen: Making travel portraits that define personality and character. > Shy child, Beijing, China, 2007

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15-SEP-2007

Shy child, Beijing, China, 2007

I found her at play in one of Beijing's many alleyways. She enjoyed playing cat and mouse, alternately showing off and then playing coy. She uses the doorknob here as a symbolic privacy screen -- giving us only one eye at a time.

Leica V-Lux 1
1/50s f/3.7 at 88.8mm iso100 hide exif

Full EXIF Info
Date/Time	15-Sep-2007 17:33:58
Make	Leica
Model	V-LUX 1
Flash Used	No
Focal Length	88.8 mm
Exposure Time	1/50 sec
Aperture	f/3.7
ISO Equivalent	100
Exposure Bias	-0.33
White Balance
Metering Mode	multi spot (3)
JPEG Quality
Exposure Program	program (2)
Focus Distance

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Phil Douglis		14-Nov-2007 00:05
Thanks, Rose Marie, for this comment -- red is very much at the soul of China and always has been. The red door here also represents a time portal. She still lingers behind it, as a shy child would. Someday she will throw it open and emerge as an adult.

sunlightpix		06-Nov-2007 19:54
What a wonderful portrait! And I note the door is painted red, a symbolic color of China.

Phil Douglis		15-Oct-2007 04:58
Everyone in this neighborhood wears clean clothes. These people work hard for what they have, and take good care of it. And yes, I may well remind her of a grandfather. She is definitely playing with me, as well as with the other photographers along with me who have come to take her picture.

Patricia Lay-Dorsey		14-Oct-2007 05:10
This is a well-loved child; look at her pristine white blouse. Hardly playclothes! She is less shy than coy, as you said. She loves to play with a man who probably reminds her of her beloved grandfather. And she is the one who has taken control of this situation, just like she has control of the doorknob.

Phil Douglis		12-Oct-2007 18:04
Well said, Charu. Today she hides behind a door. Yet that symbolic door represents a portal to life itself, and she must eventually, as you say, come out and face the world as her childhood recedes. As for what she is thinking of, I would guess she is curious as to why a complete stranger from another world wold stop and make a picture of her.

Guest		12-Oct-2007 14:49
there is another thought that came to my mind immediately on seeing this - the shy child hiding now behind the door, even if partly - but she has to come out of the door and face the world as she moves into youth and adulthood... here eyes are very active - I wonder what she is thinking of?

Phil Douglis		28-Sep-2007 04:21
Thanks, Alina -- it was one of my favorite portraits on this trip. It is the single eye that does it.

Alina		28-Sep-2007 03:18
She is curious little girl, she is picking at the camera with one eye. Great portrait!

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