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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Nineteen: Conveying a Sense of Place – A Town of Ghosts, Frozen in Time > Into the Future, Bodie, California, 2004
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17-OCT-2004

Into the Future, Bodie, California, 2004

When I began creating a relationship between these two Bodie houses, I intended to build a sense of mystery into this picture by abstracting the house at left through underexposure, and merging its dark shape into the house in the sunny background at right. And that is exactly what I accomplished. However when editing the picture on a large screen, I noticed detail for the first time that added a new dimension to my sense of mystery. Could that be a TV or radio antenna incongruously sprouting from the house at right? It could be a relic from the 50s, or maybe a park employee lives there, enjoying both the past and present simultaneously. In any event, there is definitely something on the roof of that house that is out of synch and out of time with Bodie itself. It is as if someone one living in the Old West was suddenly projected forward into the future by 100 years. Ah, those details. What would we do without them?

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20
1/1300s f/5.6 at 35.0mm iso80 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis19-Jan-2008 04:36
I rarely shoot a subject "as is," Vera. I look for context to make the subject express an idea. And in this case, by stepping back and making the house in question the second layer of an image, I am making you feel as if you are actually in the process of discovering the place.
Guest 07-Jan-2008 13:43
So many people would have stood in front of the cute house and snapped a picture. Once again, by moving back, looking for a different angle or point of view, you have made the viewer feel as if they are there too. I like how the line of the roof on the house to the left brings our eye to the door of the house on the right. It is as if you could walk up to the door, open it and walk in.
Vera
Phil Douglis23-Apr-2007 03:00
Thankis, Don -- I only shoot jpegs. I use cloudy white balance virtually all the time to warm the image. I only use post processing to touch up an image -- intensifying contrast, saturation, adding a bit more warmth, and sharpening. Essentially, I make all my images in the camera.
Donald Verger22-Apr-2007 20:48
gorgeous! are you shooting jpegs or raw and is their much post proc in this lovely image?

vote! tks, don
Phil Douglis18-Jul-2005 17:32
Thanks, Christine, for validating my intentions here. This image has been posted for nine months, and you are the first to recognize its potential for expression. Your exquisite eye even picks up something I missed -- the blending of the background hills with the roof of the house. Indeed, it makes that house seem to be almost a facade. Bodie does remind us of an old movie, only movies are fantasy, and this place is real. Dead real.
Guest 14-Jul-2005 02:45
Mr. Douglis,
I like the contrast between the “cuteness” of the house on the right and the ominous aspect of the house on the left. The colour of the background almost blends in with the roof of the “cute” house which adds a different dimension to the picture. It looks almost like cardboard and the house seems to be part of an old western movie. The antenna, that small detail, reminds us that someone lived or lives there, brings forward the human aspect and makes it much more real.
Christine
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