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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Five: Using the frame to define ideas > Queen Emma Bridge, Willemstad, Curacao, 2003
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15-DEC-2003

Queen Emma Bridge, Willemstad, Curacao, 2003

The world’s largest floating pedestrian bridge connects one side of Willemstad to another. Built in 1888, the bridge originally charged tolls to only those who wore shoes. But poor people were too proud to admit to poverty and borrowed shoes to cross in. Many wealthy citizens were too stingy to pay the toll and crossed barefoot. The 700 foot long bridge is now free for all, closed to cars, and swings open thirty times each day to allow ships to enter the city’s port. My photo of it stresses the flow of pedestrians that come and go all day and night. Some walk, others run. But the procession is continuous. To stress that horizontal flow of foot traffic, I cropped the picture into a long, wide, horizontal frame. And so the shape of the picture becomes part of its message.

Canon PowerShot G5
1/1250s f/5.0 at 28.8mm hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time15-Dec-2003 02:05:42
MakeCanon
ModelPowerShot G5
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length28.8 mm
Exposure Time1/1250 sec
Aperturef/5
ISO Equivalent
Exposure Bias
White Balance (-1)
Metering Modematrix (5)
JPEG Quality (6)
Exposure Program
Focus Distance

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Phil Douglis06-Sep-2006 19:08
I just left a comment on your own take, Jude -- each of us defines the nature of this unique structure in a different way. You place the viewer on the bridge itself, while I study the varied behavior of the steady stream of pedestrians that use it. Thanks, Jude, for drawing this comparison for us.
Jude Marion06-Sep-2006 13:32
It's a small world! Phil, I've looked at your images many, many times but only just 'saw' this one. I notice that you were in Curacao almost a year after I spent a few weeks there. I had taken a number of shots of this wonderful bridge and have one posted http://www.pbase.com/judespics/image/27599602)

I like your take - the rhythm set up by the repetition of the arches and pilings, and the horizontal framing which is accentuated further by the bridge's span and that bank of clouds in the background.
Phil Douglis27-Mar-2005 07:18
Dimension, Benchang, is added by scale, and those tiny figures on the bridge do, indeed, add the third dimesion of depth to this image. The bridge expresses its own rhythm through its structure, and the individuals who walk and run upon it, are strutting are quite small in comarison. From this great distance I can abstract both the bridge and those upon it, to bring your imagination to bear upon the image. Thanks for enjoying it so much.
Benchang Tang 27-Mar-2005 04:50
Beautiful picture. The outstanding bridge frames the picture and make it more visially three-dimensional. The people on the bridge, walking running,watching, in groups, breathe life into the picture.
Phil Douglis22-Dec-2004 19:36
Thanks, Clara, for letting your fertile imagination swim around with this image. You see the flow and the path, the order and the predictability of our comings and goings, and wonder why nobody feels free enough to swim instead. Because that takes more guts than most of us have. At least there is one person on that bridge who refuses to conform. And he will get to where he is going more quickly than any of the others.
Guest 22-Dec-2004 19:15
Going and coming. Where do we all go? Why I need to go precisely where you run away from? We follow one after the other, or we walk against the stream of others. Either way, we seem to be constricted within paths already made and built. Where's the man swiming the port's waters? No one is.
Guest 17-Jun-2004 00:33
The repetition of forms and patterns is almost musical. Such a "simple" image, but with so much life.
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