Victorian Hotel, Bridgeport, California, 2004 by Phil Douglis

Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Three: Expressing human values > Victorian Hotel, Bridgeport, California, 2004

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18-OCT-2004

Victorian Hotel, Bridgeport, California, 2004

This old hotel on Bridgeport’s main street is believed to have several resident ghosts, including the inevitable “woman in the white dress who walks the halls at night”
Ghostly or not, I found the front door of the place to be oddly painted. Notice the blue trim on the right – it just stops. Why? It is one of those inexplicable human quirks you’ll learn to pick up as you develop your sense of observation – an essential tool for any photographer. What human values does this odd trim job suggest? How about forgetfulness? Or thrift – if you run out of paint with so little left to go, why buy a new can? Or perhaps it has something to do with those ghosts. Are they trying to tell us something?

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20
1/100s f/2.8 at 33.1mm iso80 full exif

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Phil Douglis		08-Jan-2005 23:40
You are like a breath of fresh air, Audra. Everyone, including myself, has been breaking their butt to bring deep meaning to this haunted paint job, while you sit back and logically assume that the unfinished strip of paint is there because somebody is just on lunch break or didn't want to paint on a wet cold day in the Sierras. I salute your whimsical and optimistic nature - it shows in your own gallery as well. And thank you for your kind words on my galleries. Glad you are learning from them. I invite you to come often and breathe new life into our rambling discussions -- sometimes we need someone like Logical Audra to bring us back down to earth! You are anything but boring.

Guest		08-Jan-2005 23:00
p.s.I know, I am so logical in my analysis, but I am not such aboring person, really! lol. I have bounds of emotion and feeling. G

Guest		08-Jan-2005 22:48
I think the paint on the right is fresh paint, it is brighter/newer than the rest. I think they are repainting the blue trim white. But for some reason, could be anything, a lunch break, weather issues, whatever, there is only a delay, they will finish the job. I love this picture!! I am learning so much from your galleries....you are so awesome! Kind Regards, Audra

Phil Douglis		08-Jan-2005 00:13
Another remarkable interpretation of an image full of implied human values, Zandra. You chose to ignore that context of this haunted hotel I gave you here, and instead you interpreted it in true Zandraesque fashion: instinctively and from the heart. Again, let us count the human values your spontaneous interpretation expresses: resignation, lethargy, lazyness, carelessness, unselfishness, abandonment, and judgmental. Seven, Zandra. And I'll bet you can throw a few more tomorrow as well, because for you, an image such as this will just keep on giving. I m delighted as always that my image has worked as a trigger for you, allowing your imagination to roam free, associating human values with this symbolic image of a job half done. Thanks, as usual, Zandra, for cutting to the essence of it.

Guest		07-Jan-2005 22:55
Hehe this is what this image says to me..."I am tired of this ¤%#/!!! I am out of here, he can dot the painting himself" Another intepritation would be "They will be right back, i m bigger then they though and they ran out of colour". For me this shows man ability to just quit and give up in the midle of something. How many have fallen or given up on the border line...so close but not being able to cross it. The energy runs out. It could be easy to say ...they are lazy, but what do we know of there strugle. Could it not be that they have simply had to try to hard and even though that can see the finnish line, there is just no energy left, they are drained. Some, yes, they are just lazy, other, they simply don't care. What they/we all have in common though is that we atleast one time in our life gave up, or will give up, close to the finnish line, wheter we are aware of it or not. On the other hand, we really don't know if they had just begun to paint...maybe they want to poaint it white rather then blue. What happened then. Did they give up so easily or did something come in the way. Can it be so that we sometimes have to give up on our goals to bennefit others. Can it be an un selfish act to change goals are we sometimes simply just stopped in our tracks. I belive we are. So what does the image say. To put it simple...Sometimes we don't reach our goals. it may be that we chose to abandon them or it may be that we are forced to abandoen them. But it you are only looking from the outsidem they you do not know what reasonlies behind. Don't judge before know the under lying reason...

Phil Douglis		05-Jan-2005 22:07
You see, Dandan, you ARE using your imagination on this image to tell your own story. And that is exactly why I made this picture as I did. You say that something "terrible" must have happened here to cause the people to abandon this paint job in mid sill. And "terror" is very much a human value. It is something that all humans feel when they are very, very frightened. Your imagination has produced a scenario here that is based on human values, just as I intended. By making this image the way I did, and giving you a verbal context for the nature of the place, I was able to trigger this response. And that is what expressive images are supposed to do.

Guest		05-Jan-2005 09:51
I think the story should be goes like: someone bought the hotel and try to renovate it, repaint it in white; from the newly painted small portion of the white at lower right corner and the just started white portion on the door trim; something terrible happened, so the people had to abandoned the hotel. The key is that the terrible things happened at the beginning of the project not at the end...scary!

Phil Douglis		24-Dec-2004 03:16
The key feelings you speak of here, Mikel, are very basic human values -- fear, disquiet, fragility, vulnerability. This simple door is gateway to a place that exists more in the imagination than in reality. And so many human values are those that reside primarily within the imagination. I am delighted that this image has stimulated your own thoughts, too -- I am very much with you all of your observations here.

Guest		23-Dec-2004 21:54
The first thing I thought before reading the caption was in the song "Hotel California" from the Eagles, It surprised me that reading your caption you talk about ghosts. I realy believe that it is possible that some time ago some horrible things happened here and from there on there is a legend to it as a kind of colective histeria. Don't quite believe in ghosts though. In any case, the feeleng is inquietating the atmosfere denotes nerviousnes or feer, perhaps what stoped the man painting the frame of the door. An other thing that it is true is our certain fear for death and we have the necessety to explain it to ourselfs, In fact any culture believes in spirits, good or bad but the question is realy: What are we doing here? Whats after? Religion explains this unquietness we have, also a necessety of our intelect. And as in our culture a roming spirit is something bad or otherwise it wold have gone to heaven. In other cultures they try to contact with their ghosts as too honour them. In the end, arn't we fragile and small?

Phil Douglis		05-Dec-2004 00:39
Good story, Clara!

Guest		04-Dec-2004 17:24
maybe a ghost appeared several times when he was painting, so he had to give it up!

Phil Douglis		04-Dec-2004 04:21
I can see where that might have happened, but remember, this is a haunted hotel, right? Given that context, I think your explanation is much too normal. This is a place where the abnormal is commonplace -- and when a painter stops suddenly and leaves this unfinished trip for us, he must be telling us something more than just not caring.

Guest		03-Dec-2004 23:27
the unfinished brushing is strange, the people left to not return, then the new dwellers or owners did not care anymore. the building is a beautiful being left to its own, almost!

Phil Douglis		03-Dec-2004 20:55
Yes, Clara, this is a sad image. Thank you for this very thoughtful analysis. I love your words "a silent cry." What do you make of that unfinished trim?

Guest		03-Dec-2004 19:00
Hello Phil. It is the facade of innocence lost or aged. The soft colors are the beauty, the simplicity, the tenderness, that has been given away, turned into misery due to the hardships of time. The facade is a silent cry, though someone running the house, long ago, added a red strident sign: vacant, trying to attract costumers. But this also decayed. Time destroys all. Is sad.

Phil Douglis		08-Nov-2004 21:28
You certainly would, Nut. You are an engineer by profession. And good engineers are very precise. They don't like things that are unfinished and unbalanced, such as this paint job.

nut		08-Nov-2004 21:06
Curious. I think If I am there, I will finish it.

Phil Douglis		07-Nov-2004 23:19
I bet you have never thought about the paint on a door frame this much in your young life, Nut. I am glad this image has made you think such thoughts. What you are saying here, Nut, demonstrates a very important aspect of expressive photography. When we look at an expressive image, we often see ourselves in it. Your response to this picture is as much about Nut as it is about this hotel, its ghost, or the person who painted this door. You talk of your own standards -- you would never walk away from a job unfinished. You talk of ghosts as being the fears within yourself. You are showing that this picture is triggering thoughts in your own imagination. And that is what it supposed to do. A photograph is not an end in itself. It is a beginning. What happens inside of Nut's head after seeing this picture is the end result of my efforts here.

nut		07-Nov-2004 05:50
For me, I won't stop in this way. I can't leave without 100% completly of my job. The light behide the door look like a human head. If I have something to let it be in this way. I think it is about fear in something I don't know. I never see ghost in my life and I like to be in this way. I never see ghost. Am I afraid of ghost? Of course, yes...I am afraid of ghost. Ghost in my in my thought is about the fear inside me. I built its by my own. Thais always say "Do not disdain whatever you do not believe". Only one reason for me to let the door frame in this way is to keep what people believe in their place. I don't want to be the reason of all fear here.

nut		06-Nov-2004 22:01
It's about fear.

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