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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Eight: Light and shadow shape meaning > Flying Horse, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2004
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23-NOV-2004

Flying Horse, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2004

When I saw this copper weathervane for sale in the snowy front yard of a Santa Fe gallery, I was struck by how light was grazing its mane and tail, and illuminating two of its four feet. I found a vantage point that made the image flow across the frame from one softly focused snow-covered ledge to another. I was able to abstract the horse by focusing and exposing on its only its brightest part – the mane -- with my spot meter. The mane, tail, and hooves pop out at us, as do the soft snow covered ledges behind. The water-streaked adobe wall of the gallery recedes into the background adding unobtrusive context. By doing this, I was able to incongruously launch the flying horse into space.

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Guest 09-Jun-2005 02:35
I love it.Like a dream...
Phil Douglis10-Dec-2004 21:42
You and I have walked the streets of Santa Fe together many times, Tim, and I'm sure you'll agree that this image summons the spirit of this place. That spirit is largely based on Santa Fe's ever changing palette of light and color. It is no accident that one of the world's great photographic learning centers -- the Santa Fe Workshops -- is located here. Your reaction to this image as an impression of the seasons is fascinating.

Thanks, too, for your thoughtful observations on the metaphors we draw on to describe imaging. For many years, with a few very notable exceptions, photography has been a male oriented hobby and profession. For centuries, men have been the hunters, as well. Metaphorical terms relating photography to hunting abound. Capture, the current cliche of the day, is the most offensive to me. I still find myself lapsing into using such aggressive terms as "shoot" and "take," and am later a bit ashamed of myself for doing so. It is such a negative, brutal way to describe what is often a thoughtful and caring process. No doubt these terms originated with hunters who may have exchanged their guns for cameras but continued to shoot, capture, and take their prey.

Yes, I do recall Minor White mentioning the phrase "we are given images" when I was in his workshop back in the formative stages of my own career, and it made a great impression on me. As expressive photographers, rather than casual snapshooters, it seems so much more fitting to think of ourselves as making or creating images, or even finding them. (If someone wants to give them to us, that's OK, too.) Thanks for adding your thoughts on this, Tim.
Tim May10-Dec-2004 17:55
So much to comment on here - I think part of what makes this image sing for me is the focus - the horse is sharp - and while it is a representation of a real horse, I am brought to an awareness of the sharpness of summer, the activity and movement - while the snow is less focused - and for me at least - that is winter - a kind of haze comes over my world -even here in California - and thing seem more out of focus.
I am also drawn to the discussion here of the metaphors implicit in photography's verbs - capture, shoot, get, take. I read your comments earlier and love the verbs create, and build images. It sounds artificial but so much better to me to think, "I'm going out to see and create some images," rather than, "I'm going to go on a shoot."
I was just at a photography/photoshop workshop in Hawaii where part of the focus was on our ideas and feelings about photography. We discussed these words and DeWitt Jones mentioned that Minor White suggests that we go out and are "given" images - I think that it is, as you say, more than that - that we are "given" the world, and the eyes to see it, but that the images we bring back and share are ones that we create, that we filter through our sensibilities and eyes, and use our skills to record on our sensors. Interestingly as I was walking through the wood with DeWitt he talked about Richard Cooke's coming to be a photographer. Ric is deeply connected to the island of Molokai where his family has owned land for several generations and as a young man he was an avid hunter of the deer on the island. He, apparently realized that he could move from shooting with a gun to "shooting" with a camera and moved through the metaphor to a new career.
Phil Douglis06-Dec-2004 05:18
I can see that you are going to tease me forever about my phobic reaction to the cliche "nice capture! " (Go ahead, Anna, I can take it. I'll just keep reminding you about Nutella!)

Glad you like my copper-maned horse who does not want to be...captured. And thanks for picking up on the snowy ledges behind it -- it is indeed a miniature landscape (How about snowscape?)

Thanks, Anna for enjoying this image so much. I was very cold as I made this picture, and I thought of you over there in Sweden while I was shivering. (Glad to be back in Phoenix where snow does not exist.)
Anna Yu06-Dec-2004 04:51
Well "nice capture".. just joking. The dark background brings out the light on the weathervane. The snow is like a miniature landscape. The direction he's jumping gives a sense of escape, out of the frame, as is he doesn't want to be ... captured.
Phil Douglis06-Dec-2004 01:06
Hi, Dave,

Nah, the vane was too expensive. I "captured" it instead. Actually, that word "capture" drives me nuts. I cringe when somebody tells me I've made a "nice capture." They mean well, but they have missed the whole point of expressive photography. That phrase is a cliche, a substitute for substantive thinking. You are right, Dave -- expressive photographs are not captured, they are created. I did not go out, find this image and then lock it up and take it home with me. I noticed a weathervane, observed how the light was falling on it and then photographed it using a spot meter from many different vantage points until it said what I wanted it to say. This image was not there waiting for me to capture. I had to build it, shot by shot.
Dave Wyman06-Dec-2004 00:40
Phil, did you buy the weathervane?

It seems almost de rigueur that we compliment photos on pbase using the word "capture." I don't think you jusst captured this photograph, I think you created it. I've been to Sante Fe with my camera many times, dating back perhaps 15 years or more, but I doubt I've come back with anything as effect as this picture. It's an example, for me, of less making more of an overall subject, in this an old city in the American southwest.

Dave
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