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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Nine: Composition -- putting it together > Thien Mu Pagoda, Hue, Vietnam, 2000
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23-FEB-2000

Thien Mu Pagoda, Hue, Vietnam, 2000

The streets around this historic pagoda were jammed with cars and tourists. I was able to eliminate everyone, save for these two little boys, by walking down a flight of stairs across the street from the pagoda, then turning and shooting back at it from below. From this position, I was also able to frame both the children and the pagoda between the posts guarding the top of the steps. As I shot, I realized that rhythmic repitition was also working in this photograph. A series of horizontal steps lead the eye to the street level, where another series of horizontal rhythms takes over. The vertical posts at the top of the steps, the two children, and the pagoda itself, carry the beat right across the image. A sense of depth is also created as the foreground steps, middleground kids and posts, and background pagoda all work together to turn two dimensions into three.

Kodak DC4800
1/350s f/8.0 at 13.3mm full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis15-Oct-2005 22:35
Thanks, Lisbeth, for being the first to comment on this image. Boys on a shelf! I love the metaphor. As for the sudden loss of depth, that also had a practical effect. I was able to eliminate a lot of distractions on the street behind them by lowering my vantage point in this manner and thereby remove the street itself from the picture.
Lisbeth Landstrøm15-Oct-2005 21:33
The stairs and the tree gives an overall impression of depth in this picture. Therefore I find it very effectfull that the upper line of the stairs suddenly cuts off the depth in the remaining upper part of the picture. This makes all the elements - whatever they are little boys or big pagodas - look like things put side by side on a shelf: an incongruous scene. And for me the loss of depth strengenths the horisontal rythm.
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