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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Two: Travel Incongruities > Making Contact, Weekend Market, Bangkok, Thailand, 2005
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15-JAN-2005

Making Contact, Weekend Market, Bangkok, Thailand, 2005

I found these wooden figures in a crowded antique shop window. From a distance, they were lost in a mass of assorted antiques. Yet the closer I came to them with my camera, the more incongruous their relationship became. I don’t know if the shop’s owner intended to present this intimate a sculptural relationship or not, but I was able to create my own incongruous juxtaposition by isolating and then linking them both within my frame. The unclothed younger figure at right, which probably represents a baby, seems to be emerging from an ornately carved golden door, and through hand gestures, seems to be trying to make contact with the clothed and somewhat disinterested adult figure at left. I don’t know if the figures were created at different times by different artists, or if they were made as a set, but I found the manner of display suggesting a generational communication problem. There are several incongruities here – a juxtaposition of contrasting attitudes, ages, orientation, and level of clothing. I tried to make a picture that would ask as many questions of the viewer as the baby figure probably wants to ask the adult figure.

(The answers to those questions depend largely upon the context we bring to it. Are these figures religious in nature? It would be incongruous in itself to find Christian biblical figures in a Thai antique shop. Or do they represent figures from Eastern theology? Perhaps a Thai viewer, such as my frequent comment contributor Nut, would have a better context for such figures than I do. She was our guide that day in Bangkok’s weekend market, but I don’t know if she ever saw this window. I hope she may be able to add some contextual insights here.)

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Phil Douglis28-Aug-2005 23:49
I loved the political metaphor here, Kostas. Do I detect a note of cynicism, by any chance?
Kostas 28-Aug-2005 19:06
Not trying to be political here, this got me thinking, a young boy of the Third World, trying to reach a G8 leader for some help.
On the other hand the leader is thinking: "What's for me ?"
Phil Douglis18-Apr-2005 03:25
You illuminate incongruity in a new and broader light for me here, Ruth. And for yourself as well. You extend the concept of juxtaposition, contrast, opposites and irony in photographic expression to how we view the world itself. You show us the importance of pairs -- almost everything we do, in fact, has a potential reverse aspect to it. It's the way we see and think and act. Dichotomies are everywhere we turn, and photographic incongruities are simply an extension of them. We use them to convey our ideas with power and meaning. In fact, the next time I am out shooting, I am going to start thinking in "opposites" and see where it leads me. Thank you for making this point, Ruth -- once again, I find myself your student as well as your teacher!
ruthemily17-Apr-2005 22:55
it does. i am thinking now about the way humans make sense of the world by ordering it, often into binary oppositions. we use language as negation, something is what it is because it isn't something else. we think of concepts in pairs. up/down, left/right, hot/cold, north/south. i think this is maybe why incongruity works in photographs. it reminds us of the dichotomous relationship we create between the things that we perceive in the world. it hits the core of how we think and structure what we experience.
Phil Douglis17-Apr-2005 22:01
Yes, Ruth -- incongruities are often contrasts, opposites, things that don't really fit, things that play against each other. Irony is often an incongruity. So are extremes. Does this help?
ruthemily17-Apr-2005 20:15
i guess the incongruities here are about opposite concepts working in the same image?
ruthemily17-Apr-2005 20:14
thanks for simply listing the incongruities. it has helped.
Phil Douglis17-Apr-2005 19:21
There are many incongruous contrasts in this image, Ruth. Clothed vs unclothed figures, young vs. old, active vs. passive, even orientation. As I said in my caption, this picture derives most of its content from the response of the viewer. You see role reversal here, which is certainly an incongruity. And yes, there are human values present as well, along with abstraction. All three principles of expression are working together here to trigger the imaginations of those will look at this image.
ruthemily17-Apr-2005 19:10
i am struggling with this one, Phil! i am not sure i understand the depth of incongruity you are describing. what i see, is reassurance. the child reaching out to reassure the adult. perhaps i just answered my own question, maybe that role reversal is where the incongruity lies for me. i do see more human values in this one though, than incongruity. i know that doesn't alter it's effectiveness as a photograph, but i do wonder why it is in this gallery.
Phil Douglis08-Mar-2005 23:12
Good point, Clara. As someone trained in the fine arts, you know that art often may not deal with specific meaning, but rather to stimulate meanings that exist only in the mind of the viewer. Thanks for making this point. I am glad to know that you would class this image in that category. I created the incongruity here with my choices in space, and hoped that my image would ask my viewers as many questions as possible.
Guest 08-Mar-2005 16:52
Very creative composition, intriguing. It apeals purely to the viewer's imagination beyond any objective meaning.
Phil Douglis07-Mar-2005 18:24
I like your interpretation of this picture, Tim. The golden door behind the child could well be interpreted as symbolic of a "golden path" or the source of virtue.

As for incongruities, I have long felt that there are two basic approaches to it. First, is "subject incongruity" Sometimes the subject itself, such as the overloaded tuk tuk you just commented on at http://www.pbase.com/image/40189596 is simply incongruous in itself. You and and I were both photographing it through the front window of our bus -- the fact that people were piled all over the outside of it, as well as inside, made it so. There was nothing that we did with our cameras to make it incongruous. It was simply there for us to photograph.

There is also "perceptual incongruity" which is created by what we do with our camera. You do it when you shoot a Macro and show us surprising things that suddenly change in meaning because of their new scale. I did it here, by selecting just these two figures out of the mass of antiques in that window as my subjects, and then cropping it further to stress the whispered aside, the old and young, the clothed and unclothed.

Scale incongruity itself is a form of perceptual incongruity as well. The huge panel of Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum athttp://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/33922615 becomes perceptually incongruous only wen I waited for those tiny people to walk below it and contrasted them in size to the huge panel.

I think incongruity can be perplexing because of these different approaches to it. In the end. It all boils down to the subject's relationship to its context. It is perceived as a normal relationship? Or is there something surprising, exaggerated, unusual or amusing about it? And what can we do with our camera to make the ordinary into the extraordinary? For me, incongruous relationships are at the heart of expression because they so often, as this image does, and as your astonishing Macros do, trigger the imagination of the viewer, and stimulate thought, as well as drawing an emotional response.

Thanks for this comment, Tim-- it gave me a chance to discuss some of the points that I've tried to stress in this Incongruity gallery (http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/travel_incongruities )
Tim May07-Mar-2005 16:36
We all bring our past and experience to images - I think of "Highlights for Children" a magazine of my youth which has an effect on my moral upbringing. One of the cartoons in that book was about listening to your conscience. Here is looks as if the boy or man is being gently reminded of the "light," to walk the golden path.

As I look at your galleries, I try to reread what you are trying to teach - before I just respond to the image - this time I was puzzled by the sentence - "Sometimes I can also create incongruities of my own making." How wonderful that this image and your caption answered that puzzle. This incongruity was created, not only by your camera angle, but also by your cropping. I must confess, that while I think I see and photograph "incongruity" almost unconsciously - it continues, for me, to be one of your most perplexing ideas.
Phil Douglis05-Mar-2005 00:00
Thanks, Zandra. You looked past the incongruities and the theological musing here and struck at the very heart of it -- the human values involved. I guess because i made this image specifically for my incongruities gallery, i was so caught up in them, that i did not stand back and properly assess the role that human values play in this image. You reel off a laundry list of them here and rightly so. It has obviously aroused your maternal instincts, Zandra. I cropped this image substantially to isolate the figures even more than in my original photo to stress that intimacy, removing in the process the tiny sexual organ of the doll-like-child that diluted the message here. I am thrilled that you loved this image. I have already had one comment from someone that saw no point at all here. It shows you how personal context, interests and instincts can make or break a substantive response to an image.
Guest 04-Mar-2005 19:51
Tenderness, faithfulnes, trust, friendship, love and care. Only to mention a few values that i read in to this. A gentle touch by the hand can say so much. The hand does not even have to be real, it speeks volumes even whenit is a doll. This is truly hart touchable. My first thought was a child reaching out to touch the face of his or her mother or a sibling. Is there ever a better feeling then a child touching your face. They are so innocent. It is almost as if that innocents rub of with there touch and for a brief moment you become that inocent child again. The curiosity is also ther, jsut look at how the child holds then hand, as if it want to discover the surface of something new and unknown. Thsi is one of those times when going in close makes all teh difference. Not only does it isolate the figures from teh mass of atichues, but it also gives the viewer a sence of intimecy. As if we have been alowed in to there world. I absolutly love it Phil.
Phil Douglis04-Mar-2005 17:59
Sharing a secret might well be a good title for this picture. And it is a touching and tender moment, even if the subjects are only carvings, and incongruously matched carvings at that.
Guest 04-Mar-2005 10:26
Are they sharing a secret? Just children sharing secrets with their parents, a touching and tender moment…
Phil Douglis28-Feb-2005 04:27
Four levels of incongruity are in this image, Mo. As for meaning, this is one of those images where the image is designed to stimulate the imagination of the viewer and each viewer will supply their own answers to the questions this image asks of us. Sorry your imagination is not prodded into action here, Mo.
monique jansen27-Feb-2005 16:16
it does not feel so incongruous to me, I see two statues, a naked one and a dressed one, touching each other - I am a bit intrigued to find out what the golden thing behind them is, but that is it - I do not read a lot of meaning into it.
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