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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Sixteen: Story-telling street photography > Rickshaw traffic, Varanasi, India, 2008
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29-MAR-2008

Rickshaw traffic, Varanasi, India, 2008

Long lines of cycle-driven rickshaws carry visitors and locals about town. Rides cost one to two dollars, depending upon bargaining skills. I made this image with my longest focal length -- 420mm. The morning light illuminates my subject, while shadows embrace everyone else.

Leica V-Lux 1
1/400s f/5.6 at 88.8mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis13-Oct-2008 03:48
You are right, Khang -- the light creates the focal point here, and the moment creates the meaning.
Guest 10-Oct-2008 10:41
The focusing way of that light is great, and greater is how you catched the moment.
Phil Douglis04-May-2008 19:30
Thanks, Tim, for seeing a gesture of opening and invitation here. She is part of a rigidly defined society, and this telescoped view symbolically flattens everyone into a single plane, with little space between them. Yet she somehow manages to define herself as an individual here -- apart from all the others. I have helped things along by using a spot meter to expose for her, and letting all of the shadowy figures around her become darker in the process.
Tim May04-May-2008 18:21
Jay Maisel speaks of gesture and for me gesture and shadow add meaning to this image. The young woman is in the light and her gesture is one of opening and invitation. In a rickshaw ahead of her is an older woman, in shadow and with a closed gesture.
Phil Douglis30-Apr-2008 00:33
Thanks, Dandan -- it is the interplay of light and shadow that make her stand out and the others fade into context.
Guest 29-Apr-2008 17:14
Phil, i love how you use lighting to make she stand up... everything else seems just fade away...
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