Bookshop, Kinsale, Ireland, 2004 by Phil Douglis

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25-AUG-2004

Bookshop, Kinsale, Ireland, 2004

A mystical figure seems to spring to life from the wall of a Kinsale bookstore as geese around her seem to incongruously fly off into those green trees. The only thing that was missing was a leprechaun! The key to this shot was carefully moving the camera in to create a tight frame, in order to merge that tree to the sign. We don’t see where this tree begins or ends, but my purposeful merger offers real leaves for those fictional geese, while the mystical figure seems to emerge out of the leaves as well.

Canon PowerShot G5
1/250s f/4.0 at 17.6mm full exif

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Phil Douglis		25-Jul-2006 06:29
Another supernatural image for Emi. Glad you came to this one too -- it works so well because it is so "Irish" -- only the leprechaun is missing! And Celia has a wonderful eye for color -- she is a graphics designer. She spotted the value of the red flower and the red wall right away, as I knew she would. Glad you like it too.

Guest		25-Jul-2006 04:30
I like Cecilia's point of view, especially about the red flowers. Emi

Phil Douglis		22-Dec-2004 01:44
You really worked your imagination on these incongruities, Mikel, and that's why I made this shot. I like your idea about how nature will always outpace man's comparatively feeble attempts to master the world through knowledge.

Guest		21-Dec-2004 23:48
I don't know, it looks like a kind of barrier of nature or for nature, there is this mistic figure as you say on one hand, very usuall in Irish mentality that still mantains many of it's pagan figures though ferveously christian. Somehow, the letters of the bookshop look like a wall, or perhaps beter a door since the figure has the key, the key that opens the door of knowllage that represents the book shop, or the key to nature unfold it's own knoullage overgrowing our own ego of it. I like to think the second possibility.

Phil Douglis		01-Dec-2004 23:19
Another insightful observation, Clara. Of course all of this is artificial. Fantasies are not real, and this image is all about fantasy and illusion.

Guest		01-Dec-2004 19:41
the advertising adds artificiality to the whole scene, tree included.

Phil Douglis		07-Nov-2004 23:33
Glad you noticed the white rock the woman is standing on -- another incongruity, right. And yes, this image does abstract both the painted woman and the birds by blending them into the real bush and tree -- what I call a purposeful merger. This abstraction creates the incongruity. So you can now see how both abstraction and incongruity can work simultaneously to express an idea.

nut		07-Nov-2004 15:49
This is the incongruous photograph in term of abstract to represent "anti-synonymous act" between "In and Out". Here I see something more. It's a white rock (i am not sure that is a rock or not) in the middle of river (blue color and white ripples gave me this idea). I am try to move a bit and see this photo in different angle. It's possible to highlight the idea as above.

nut		01-Nov-2004 08:29
Sharp thought. But I saw something you can't control here. It's the sparse-tiny tree. I saw a small flying goose go forward and didn't prepare for landing somewhere inside this tree. It's a bit hard for me to see this photo as 3D because the geese size between two flying geese and one goose (who come up from the dense bush) are a bit different.

Phil Douglis		22-Oct-2004 03:11
This image is all about incongruous juxtaposition as you say, Celia. Glad you liked this one as well -- some folks would see only a sign and a tree, but you go beyond to see the whimsical three dimensional fairy tale I've created out of this Irish bookshop. As for the title, I am glad you like that as well. But I can't take credit for it. For the sake of consistency, I always play my titles straight, identifying the nature of the subject, the location and the year. Your imagination took a leap with that title here, and I'm delighted it did. Phil

Cecilia Lim		20-Oct-2004 15:44
Another whimsical piece from the master of incongruity himself! Two separate realities mergeing into one! The effect of the geese barely showing through some of its leaves while flying behind them create energy and an overlapping 3-dimensional effect, making the flat 2-dimensional painting come to life as it interacts with its surroundings! What a creative eye and imagination you have! Another key element that merges the two realities is the red flower growing from the tree that ties it in with the red background. How apt! The fact that the red and green are complimetary colours also make it seem like the two realities are meant to be one! When I first saw the title of your photograph, I though what a boring, uncreative and unsuitable title it was - simply because your image wasn't really about a bookshop. But then after having thought about it, I changed my mind because books often create a different reality in the viewer's mind. The idea of creating a different reality - of fantasy and imagination - projected by your image very much represents what books often do. Suddenly, the title, "Bookshop", is irrefutably the perfect choice!

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