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Cecilia Lim | all galleries >> Galleries >> life > Her Beach Vacation
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24 April 2005 Perhentian Island, Malaysia

Her Beach Vacation


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Guest 18-Aug-2006 19:50
What a fascinating composition, suggesting loneliness to me, perhaps a mother whose children have flown, at the beach to reconnect with elemental salty liquid. The vibrant colors of the woman and her "shade" are so beautifully balanced with the soft clear weight of the incoming water, and somehow, to see her twice protected from the sun (in a way that Westerners eschew) makes far more sense to me than stripping almost naked and being blasted by solar radiation. She seems so sensible to me!
Cianni Cao19-May-2006 08:25
One of my favourites in your gallery. Well done!
Vilone27-Jan-2006 00:46
Nice pic!...nice vacation!
Guest 21-Aug-2005 13:31
That’s so amusing; and it makes you wonder what she is doing there!!! Love the composition too!
Phil Douglis20-Aug-2005 18:14
You have used the theory of opposites and contradictions very well here, Celia -- and your abstracted approach only intensifies the effect of your expression by stimulating the imagination of your viewers. Less becomes more here.
Cecilia Lim20-Aug-2005 13:44
Thank you Phil for giving me such wonderful feedback on this image and on the other two that I've recently posted. I find that incongruities in human behaviour often result in humour and this lady presented herself as the perfect subject for a whimsically funny photograph. She carefully dresses herself with a long-sleeved shirt and an umbrella to stay dry and out of the sun. Yet she completely immerses herself in the very things that she is trying to avoid - the sun and water! One of the reasons why this image works is because of the expression of opposites and contradictions, which you also teach at your " Stimulating the imagination with opposites and contradiction" gallery at http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/opposites . I didn't have to work very hard once I had recognized this contradiction here. All I had to do was compose the image to isolate and surround her with water and wait for the right waves to break over her!
Phil Douglis16-Aug-2005 23:02
This wonderful, Celia. It combines all of the principles of expression I cherish -- sitting in the water with an umbrella is a very amusing incongruity. You shoot her from behind to abstract her, making her into anybody. And the human value you bring out here has to be absurdity itself. She is not even wearing a bathing suit -- but appears to be wearing a robe or dress. We associate umbrellas to keep us from getting wet (even though she may using it to keep cool) and here she is getting soaked beneath it. In a way, you have combined the absurdity of Eagle Watching (http://www.pbase.com/cecilialim/image/47740516 ) with the rear-view abstraction of Watching Half Dome (http://www.pbase.com/cecilialim/image/47796624 ).

All three of these images make wonderfully whimsical additions to the growing gallery celebrating the incongruities of life. You have a deliciously wicked sense of humor, Celia, and you are injecting it into most of these images.