Gallery Two: Travel Incongruities Photo Gallery by Phil Douglis at pbase.com

Gallery Two: Travel Incongruities

In my travel photojournalism, I look for subjects rich in incongruity -- elements that seem to be at odds with their context. Sometimes I can also create incongruities of my own making. To me, incongruities often intensify meaning, creating contrasts or juxtapositions that can stimulate the emotions as well as the intellect. Incongruity, along with abstraction and human values, is at the core of photographic expression. The examples in this gallery explore all kinds of incongruous subjects and relationships.
Most of these images have been selected from my archive of digital travel impressions posted at http://www.pnd1.smugmug.com/

I also highly recommend a visit to the "Post No Bills" gallery of Henry Ho at https://pbase.com/henryhpk/advertisment . It will offer you a virtual encyclopedia of incongruous juxtaposition, focusing entirely on advertisements relating to unaware pedestrians on the streets of Hong Kong.

I present my own gallery on incongruity here in "blog" style. A large thumbnail is displayed for each image, along with a detailed caption explaining how I intended to express my ideas. If you click on the large thumbnail, you can see it in its full size, as well as leave comments and read the comments of others. I hope you will be able to participate in the dialogue. I welcome your comments, suggestions, ideas, and questions, and will be delighted to respond.

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Grave of Karl Marx, Highgate Cemetery, London, England, 1985

By using a long telephoto lens, I was able to compress the foreground, middleground, and background to make this enormous marble head of Karl Marx suddenly loom before us within a forest full of graves. Highgate, a wooded Victorian city of the dead sprawling in the middle of suburban London, is rich in such incongruities. This image places us in the midst of this dark and haunted forest -- the scale incongruity of the oversized head of Marx sends a shiver down our backs.

Four years after I posted this image on pbase, a blog entry about Karl Marx used this photograph as an illustration.

The blog discusses the history of Marx's two burials at Highgate Cemetery. You can read it at: http://acephalous.typepad.com/acephalous/2007/06/marx_towers_ove.html

22 comments leave a comment

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Phil Douglis		15-Aug-2008 21:57
Glad to see that you are pursuing my galleries one at a time, Endre. As for the pbase search function leading viewers to my images, it seems hit and miss to me as well. Most people seem to discover my galleries by clicking on my name linked to the many comments I have left in the galleries of hundreds of other pbase photographers over the years. My guess is that you might have found my images in this way, too.

endre novak		15-Aug-2008 21:36
voted, of course, again in hope that this gallery floats up for further education. just noted that browsing through camera types, Leica V lux 1 in this case, the useful option from the front page of Pbase does not give a hit on any of these images,- a pity. compliments, endre

Phil Douglis		08-Aug-2008 17:53
It is a good idea, V, to come back to these critical galleries as you continue to learn and grow. You will see things now that you may not have seen before, and the examples should mean a lot more to you now that you are familiar with the concept. By all means keep an open mind -- a creative mind is never closed.

Guest		08-Aug-2008 02:22
Hi Phil, I am back at the beginning again...scanning your incongruities and trying to remind myself to keep my mind open to them. good night, V

Phil Douglis		19-Jun-2007 23:12
Juxtas. I like the sound of that word, Armin. Thanks.

arminb		19-Jun-2007 21:39
wonderful juxtas!

Phil Douglis		19-Jun-2007 15:33
No need to ever be nervous about your trips, Alina. You are a fine photographer, and often find incongruities as thought provoking as those in this gallery. Have a great visit to the West Coast.

Alina		19-Jun-2007 14:42
I’m always a little nervous before I travel. I went through your gallery and I am in much better mood now. I saw a lot of great adventures photos here. Regards. Alina

Phil Douglis		01-Jan-2007 20:20
Thanks, Gil, as always, for your kind and thoughtful words. I hope your Germany trip went well. As for the new title of Rabbi Phil, I must decline the honorific -- I am not theologically inclined, and do not offer prophetic visions. But I appreciate the thought.

Gil Hidalgo		06-Dec-2006 22:52
Before I travel to any significant place, I make it a point to Visit with Phil...well, Visit his Pbase page, that is. I stop here to get inspiration, direction and ideas. In other words, to immitate Phil! (No shame in that) I am about to make a trip to Germany for a department meeting. I will not be traveling as the staff photographer but as a simple employee ready to learn the new Corporate Style guides and marketing materials. I am however, taking my trusted Fuji S2 to photograph the many locations we will visit as part of our department activities. I will have the opportunity to see the Kris Kringle Christmas festival and stay at the Pommersfelden castle for the entire week. It's an opportunity to practice and apply all the teachings from Rabbi Phil...according to his prophecy! I hope to make you proud! With much love & appreciation. Gil

Phil Douglis		31-Aug-2006 23:41
Thanks, Tom, for the kind words on this gallery. Glad it is helpful. As for program mode, my approach to photography has always been to concentrate on what I am trying to express. I rely on "P" mode (Program) to give me a basic exposure. I usually darken it a bit by using the spot meter. If the shutter speed is too slow, I will use "Program shift" to override it. I rarely, if ever, use aperture or shutter priority, and never use manual mode and certainly avoid using "Automatic," which would disable many features I depend on. It is not a matter of "better" or "worse." It simply is not my style to fiddle with f stops and shutter speeds, if I can avoid it. I am not a technician. I am a story teller, and I often tell my story by painting with light using the spot meter. That is my exposure tool, not the exposure modes on the camera. Hope this is helpful, Tom, and thanks for asking.

Tom Womack		31-Aug-2006 23:29
Phil, Your gallery # 2 is an inspiration to me. I noticed on your shots taken with your FZ30 and your Leica, that you were using program mode. Do you find that it works better on those two cameras, especially the FZ30?

Phil Douglis		29-Aug-2006 19:48
Thanks, pep, for coming to my galleries. Take your time, and practice what you learn. I welcome any comments or questions you might care to post.

pep		29-Aug-2006 19:33
I've just viewed your first two galleries. I've started shooting this January, and your galleries are exactly what I needed to help me see the world around me in a new eye. Thanks! Of course, I find most of your pictures compelling and instructive.

Phil Douglis		25-Aug-2006 17:36
Thank you, Henry, for this comment. You are already, in my view, pbase's acknowledged master of the incongruous street scene (http://www.pbase.com/henryhpk/advertisment ). If my galleries can help you deepen and broaden the expressiveness of your imagery, I would be delighted.

Henry Ho		25-Aug-2006 11:44
Your images are great,so much learn from you!I will come back again!Thank you for sharing! henry

Phil Douglis		15-Aug-2006 19:52
Thanks, Harue, for coming to my galleries. I will take a look at yours as well. I hope you will come often and use them as learning resource.

Guest		15-Aug-2006 10:25
Nice galleries. Thanks for sharing.

Phil Douglis		26-May-2006 23:01
Welcome to my cyberbook, James. Take your time, and digest each gallery with thought and care. You will gradually build your knowledge of expressive travel photography as you go. And as always, I welcome any questions or comments you might care to make, and I will respond to them as soon as I can. Thanks for taking the time to share my ideas.

james2002		26-May-2006 22:30
Many fine galleries here. Can't wait to view the rest. Jim

DaRko		05-Mar-2006 14:23
VeRy Nice :)

Phil Douglis		24-Aug-2005 19:33
Grazie, Umberto. You are very kind, and I treasure your thoughts. I would rather be called a great teacher, however -- because photography for me is a means to an end. To help others realize their own talents is my overriding purpose.

Guest		24-Aug-2005 04:14
un grandissimo colpo d'occhio. You are a great photographer. Compliments Umberto

Phil Douglis		23-Aug-2005 17:57
Thanks, Jude and Galina -- you both seem to grasp the essential humanity behind these images. I find it hard to separate an incongruity from the human values it represents. And yes, most of this is really a slice of life, or as Galina puts it, "journalistic art." In the end, what you both are saying is that these images tell stories about people, their strengths, their frailties, their peculiarities, in a universal way. And do it in unconventional, rather than conventional ways.

Galina Stepanova		23-Aug-2005 13:45
This is amazing gallery. One can spend hours traveling though your eyes all around the world. Great journalistic art.

Jude Marion		23-Aug-2005 06:34
Phil, I was going to start commenting on various photos in this gallery (and may still do so) but really, each image makes the viewer stop and think, "What the ....?" I love the incongruities, the humour, your keen observation and that sort of 'slice of life' that you have captured. For some reason I am reminded of a favourite expression "People, they're just so human" !!

Phil Douglis		08-May-2005 21:06
AJ, read each caption carefully. I have tried my best to point out the incongruities in each image, and what they express. If you have any questions about any of these incongruities, just post them under the picture, and I will be glad to answer them for you.

Guest		08-May-2005 19:12
I am not sure I understand these images. Some of them are obviously visually incongruous, but those which you state as being incongruous due to you camera/viewpoint etc, I can't see as such: some show senses of scale, perspective, etc, but ingongruity? Perhaps I am missing the point (?)

Phil Douglis		01-Dec-2004 16:46
Glad to clear that up for you, Jen.

Jennifer Zhou		01-Dec-2004 12:40
Phil, I understand now! Thank you for listing all the examples! When we say look for incongruity in the pictures, we don't only look for incongruous subject but also make incongruity with our cameras. And that called perceptual incongruity! It helps! Jen

Phil Douglis		30-Nov-2004 03:58
A quick question but a good one, Jen. I use "perceptual incongruity" as a general term embracing all kinds of incongruities created by our use the camera itself, as opposed to "subject incongruity" where the subject itself is incongruous to start with. Perceptual incongruities in this gallery include "On the Road Beyond Sonora Pass," "Flowery Crown," "Bookshop," "Sheer Scale," "Mao and Stuff" "Double Take," "Flying Feet," "Containerama," "Gotcha," "Descent from the Dune," and "Grave of Karl Marx." In each case, it was my vantage point, use of frame, lens effect, etc., that made the image incongruous. Very often, my vantage point creates a scale incongruity that would not have been as noticeable form another position. That is a very important aspect of perceptual incongruity. It simply means "seeinf incongrously with the camera" as opposed to "being incongruous to begin with." On the other hand, subjects such as "Snowy Morning on Canyon Road" was incongruous to begin with -- a clear case of subject incongruity. And other images, such as "Big Smile in the Prater" combine both perceptual incongruity and subject incongruity into the same picture. Some amusement park designer created a grotesquely incongruous funhouse, and I photographed it from a perspective that made it even more incongruous. Does that help, Jen?

Jennifer Zhou		26-Nov-2004 06:14
Phil, a quick question: what is perceptual incongruity? Any example in this gallery? Thanks!! Jen

Phil Douglis		09-Nov-2004 04:29
Yanan, it is my pleasure to see your work and to know how strongly you feel about this gallery. You have shown me that you, too, appreciate the incongruous, particularly in your Amsterdam gallery.

YNW		09-Nov-2004 03:50
I am so grateful for your comment and suggestions on my gallery, Phil. Thank you so much! I need to read them again for totally catching up with your ideas. Also, I love your gallery on incongruity very much. Have a nice day! Yanan

Phil Douglis		07-Nov-2004 23:12
Hi, Nut, Delighted to see you are wrestling with these concepts. No, I do not play chess. But I see what you are driving at. Chess is a game of the mind. And so is expressive photography. In both, you must think in many directions at the same time, right? I love the way your mind wraps around these principles like an octopus and squeezes them until the juice comes out. You are right -- when we see less, we think more. That is the power of abstraction, Nut. When you see less, you can focus more on what is there. You are distracted. You are dealing with an essence, rather than the whole. You are talking here about the effects of both abstraction and incongruity on the human mind. Abstraction takes everything away but the essence, and forces the viewer to use their imagination to fill in the details. Incongruity, on the other, juxtaposes the subject and its context in an unusual way, to make a point or express an idea. Keep up the hard thinking, Nut. You are doing very well at it.

nut		07-Nov-2004 05:32
To see less, To think more. Once you see less then see it wide and sharp. I think it's very clever to express your thought and your idea by using anti-synonmous concept. Not only visible and/or invisible object but also abstract, feeling context (this word, I learned from here). To express your photo in thsi way, it made me know and understand very well about the value of all elements around me. To see less, To think more and To express your thoughtby using incongruity. And this is the way I learned and realized the meaning of each element aroud me. This is 3D in my thought. Phil, I would like to ask your one more question here. Do you know how to play chess?

Phil Douglis		06-Nov-2004 22:27
What is complicated is grasping the many different ways we can find or create incongruity in our images, Nut. Photographic incongruity can be found or created through scale, perspective, abstraction, frame, light and time. And sometimes the subject itself can be behaving in an incongruous way, or can be placed in an incongruous relationship to something else. We can even have more than one incongruity happening at once as in the "USS Midway and Friend" which is an example of both scale incongruity -- the small boat protecting the large one -- and incongruity created through abstracting that huge aircraft carrier down to its essence. By showing less of it, I make it seem even larger than it really is, as well as contrast it in scale to the tiny boat that guards it. Indeed, as you say, we can have a chain of incongruities.

nut		06-Nov-2004 21:46
Complicated elements in a chain of incongruity.

Phil Douglis		14-Aug-2004 06:39
Thanks, Jen, for spending some time in this gallery. One of your great strengths as a photographer is juxtaposing incongruous elements to express ideas. You are so talented that you have been instinctively doing it, but now you can do it more purposefully to make specific points with your pictures. If you go through all of these examples very carefully, you will note that there are different kinds of incongruity such as incongruous subject/context relationships, scale incongruities, perceptual incongruities, subject exaggeration, and behavioral incongruities. By all means, store this concept in that remarkable brain of yours and consciously look for these incongruities when every are out shooting. You can also create perceptual and scale incongruities simply by taking extreme vantage points and framing your images boldly. I have long believed that incongruity is one of the three most important factors in expressive photography. It is every bit as important as abstracting your images, and stressing human, rather than mechanical, values.

Jennifer Zhou		14-Aug-2004 06:10
Dear Phil, I really like this concept!! You had commented on some of my pictures using the word incongruity, I wasn't sure the meaning at frist, but now I understand, and checking back on those pictures, I was so surprised because for the first I see them differently and interestingly. Thank you Phil, next time when I am out shooting, I will be sure to bring this concept with me, and that would make the observation so much fun. Jen

Phil Douglis		12-Aug-2004 20:32
Thanks, Teresa, for studying my images and learning from them. That's why I've posted these galleries -- there are now more than 300 photographs here for you to view and absorb the ideas behind the making of them. Take your time, and feel free to leave comments or questions on any picture and I promise to respond. I see that you enjoy traveling yourself, and perhaps someday our paths may cross. I see you have photographed in many of the same places where I've photographed. Your pictures bring back a lot of memories.

Teresa Vilhena		12-Aug-2004 20:03
Phil, I loved your photos and your extraordinary idea. I learned a lot with your images, one by one. Congratulations and of course everybody would love to see more images. From Brazil, Teresa

Phil Douglis		12-Aug-2004 02:09
Thanks, Matt. Glad you enjoyed this gallery. Good luck to you in your own photography. If ever have any questions about the points I'm discussing, I'd be happy to answer them for you. Phil

Matt Reichel		12-Aug-2004 01:37
Great gallery, really awesome photographs! Great work.

Phil Douglis		04-Aug-2004 19:32
Thanks, Bart, for your kind words. I hope this gallery, as all of my galleries here, will prove useful as well as beautiful.

Guest		04-Aug-2004 12:57
Beautiful work as always, Phil! Regards

Phil Douglis		07-Jun-2004 17:23
Thanks, Ron, for your comment. All of three of those images are very special to me because of the degree of incongruous juxtaposition involved in each of them.

Guest		07-Jun-2004 12:55
Compelling set of images...I enjoyed them all but Afghan Dinner, Changing the Guard, and Gotcha deserve special mention. Ron

Phil Douglis		05-Jun-2004 22:19
Thanks, Nelson. Your own work is quite extraordinary as well.

Nelson Ricciardi		05-Jun-2004 21:26
Extraordinary work. Congrats.

Phil Douglis		05-Jun-2004 17:07
Thanks, Terry -- glad you find my galleries of value. I have posted them as a learning tool for anyone who wants to make images that express ideas, and I am glad you have been able to use them in this way.

Phil Douglis		05-Jun-2004 16:55
Thanks, Carlo, for your kind words on my work. And good luck to you with your new digital SLR. Your own work to date is already awesome -- I noted several images in your galleries that are as incongruous as any of my own examples in this gallery -- and abstract as well. Keep up the good work, and good luck.

Terry Alexander		05-Jun-2004 16:13
Excellent images Phil and a myriad of education when accompanied with your narrative of the moment and the capturing of the images. Thank you for sharing so much. Terry

Guest		05-Jun-2004 13:28
Amazing work. Just armed myself with a digital SLR and hope to compile a body of work as awesome as yours. Keep walking the earth and shooting! -www.photos.ph/gameface

Phil Douglis		02-Jun-2004 20:32
Thanks, Dirk, for your comments and for your vote. I am thrilled whenever you stop by my galleries and leave insightful comments on so many of my images. As someone who has posted more than 130 galleries and nearly 7,000 photographs on pbase, your ideas always mean a lot to me. You have great and diverse talents, and I am always delighted whenever you are able to let me know how you view my own photographs.

Guest		02-Jun-2004 14:48
Hi Phil, Stunning gallery and again all this wonderful information and stories, thanks for your kindness Phil. I was impressed by so many of these images and commented on several of them. Oh and of course you get my vote for this wonderful and extremely interesting gallery ! With warm regards, Dirk

Phil Douglis		13-Mar-2004 22:07
Thanks, Daze, for stopping by. Incongruous juxtapositon is so important to photographic expression. It is no accident, of course, that you found this particular gallery of interest. One of your own strengths as a photographer is the ability to create striking incongruous scale relationships such ashttp://www.pbase.com/image/26737998 andhttp://www.pbase.com/image/22328635 I hope you'll also be able to find some of the other types of incongruities I've displayed in this gallery of use in your fine work. Phil

Guest		13-Mar-2004 09:30
this is a great galley, phil...really interesting shots and a well selected group of photos... thanks for sharing! daze

Phil Douglis		12-Mar-2004 19:24
Thanks, Bruce, for your substantive comment on this gallery. I have never considered cropping to be "post-exposure manipulation." Rather, cropping for me offers simply another chance to create a frame for an image. I frame for the first time in the camera, and then can do it again after the fact in order to remove irrelevant information, shift the position of content within the frame, change the shape of the frame to compliment the shape of the subject matter, and perhaps even further abstract an image to engage the imagination of the viewer. Cropping is far from cheating. It can often be our most important post-exposure tool in terms of strengthening meaning. Phil

Guest		12-Mar-2004 04:47
Another thought provoking and imagination engaging trip through your gallery. The subject of cropping came up in this one - I always had this nagging feeling that "post-exposure" manipulation was a form of cheating, but your results speak for themselves. Time to drop the guilt trip and get on with it the craft and creation!

Phil Douglis		27-Jan-2004 03:44
Thanks, Christine, for your comment. I am delighted you enjoy my work. As for National Geographic I know several of their photographers and do not envy their task. They spend as much as six months on a story, shoot 25,000 slides, and only about ten or twenty ever see the light of day. They also are anxious to shoot digitally, but the magazine still prefers slides. It's a tough life, and my hats are off to those whose work is good enough to be published in this remarkable magazine.

Christine		14-Jan-2004 22:42
Phil, I really enjoyed looking at all your photos but the travel incongruities gallery is my favorite. Thank you for sharing so many very informative tips on digital photography. Your beautiful work desserves to be in magazines (National Geographic or other professional ones). Christine Bourgeoishttp://www.worldisround.com/home/cbarreb/index.html

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