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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Two: Travel Incongruities > Squeezing Nature, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2005
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25-MAY-2005

Squeezing Nature, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2005

It is just a simple picture of a dark hotel lobby on a quiet spring morning. There is, however, something in this image that is jarringly incongruous. A long trail of light sweeps us deeply into the frame, tracking its way across a multi-colored carpet, climbs on to the newspaper being read by a distant figure, and then flies out the window into the palm trees. That light trail is caused by the mid morning sun shining through an overhead skylight. It represents the diminishing role of nature in our lives. We allow the sun to enter our places of leisure, yet we squeeze it down to a narrow vestigial ribbon of light. The distant figure does not even seem to be aware of nature’s incongruous presence. He is otherwise occupied. But we can see what he does not see, and hopefully we may think about its meaning.

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Phil Douglis23-Jul-2006 18:25
You see this light as divine intervention, Emi, a view that complements Ana's point on freedom, and Jen's point on truth. Thanks for this interpretation -- it keeps broadening the expressive power of the image.
Guest 23-Jul-2006 12:27
Maybe the squeezed trail of light is a reminder from God about his promise to us?(Rainbow) Its amazing that God can reach use through every single little thing which we may not even noticed.

Emi
Guest 26-Jun-2005 12:48
Yes, Phil. I think that this photograpfh is an excellent example of what I was trying to show you in the comment of the flower shop. We can see this picture just as a hotel's lobby or we can go further and discover the 'game' between man and nature, with its goods and bads.
Phil Douglis24-Jun-2005 23:04
Contradictions everywhere, indeed! My caption left each of you to come up with your meaning, and I am, as usual, moved by what you came up with here. Leave it to Marisa to see the disconnectedness here -- the oblivious man, the sterile tomb-like order of his surroundings, the chaos of nature, yet still united by the ribbon of life that links it all with a shining rainbow of color. Do you think that this image meets the challenge you set for all of us in your long comment on my flower shop image athttp://www.pbase.com/image/40174227 ?

In that comment, you challenged us all to use our cameras to express the human condition through its contradictions, illusions, opposites, rhythms, and circles, so that we can come to understand and then express the reality that lays behind the illusion. If I interpret your comment on this particular picture correctly, it seems as if I've at least come close to doing that here. Do you agree?
Guest 17-Jun-2005 15:55
Phil, this picture is so interesting because shows in what tremendous way the human being lost his contact with the natural world.
Contradictions everywhere working together to make sense of the nonsense !!
Rigid construction in the inside, darkness, artificial light, silence, stiffness isolation and loneliness.. looks like a cemetery for me. But in the outside (and here there's no difference if the natural enviroment is built by the man or by the nature itself, because here the man have tried to evoke the natural 'state'), everything is different. Sunlight, an exuberant green full of life and oxigen, a 'disorder' structure.
Light and darkness separated by a simple glass, a glass that represents the invisible boundaries that mankind has inside since so many centuries.. the man that is inside doesn't register the outside, but also can't register what's happening around him in his 'natural enviroment': he's completely absorbed by his own self, disconnected from the rest of the world.
But something good happens here. Through those little windows, the sunlight entered into the human world. And is that light the one that allow us to discover that the carpet is, in fact, a beautiful rainbow of colors.
That metaphor is what I like of this picture. Show us that in the balanced and respectful union of man and nature they both find their destiny: to shine.
Phil Douglis02-Jun-2005 22:48
Thanks, Cory, for emphasizing the incongruity of man's lack of interest in the glowing line that runs through the room and right under his nose. And also for seeing the contrast between the gloom of the room, the incongruous red color of the road to nature, and the greenery that lies beyond it all. I agree with your incongruous interpretation of the path nature is showing us that flows right through solid glass. Yet man remains steadfastly locked behind that glass. As you say, it tells us that we must find our own ways to approach, understand and appreciate the value of nature in our lives, and that is what this image is all really all about. Recognizing the uneasy balance between man and nature is, as you say, an essential human value.
Guest 02-Jun-2005 21:39
I find it rather amazing that the occupants of this room seem to have missed this glowing beacon of light. I think I am going to have to start making my interpretations without reading comments first. I see a blend here. To me the under exposure of the room adds to the overall gloom of this room that we appear trapped in. In stark contrast is this glowing line that looks like the painted lines on a highway only in a bright red as though nature decided we chose the wrong color for our roadways. Nature seems to jump in and say here is the way out of this gloom and leads us towards humans who are sitting as close to nature as they can in this room, and from there it shows us a way out. Perhaps another incongruity here is that the path nature shows us is through glass and although light may take that path we cannot. We can only see the direction she points us and find our own way there. I find that nature in this way also takes on human values.
Phil Douglis30-May-2005 18:44
Thank you, Jen, for adding to the discussion on this image. You point out another key incongruity here -- the drabness of the carpet in shadow becomes a brilliant rainbow under direct light. You extend that incongruity into a metaphor for vision itself. Normal seeing is predictable and often neutral. To see selectively instead of neutrally allows us to extract meaning and perhaps even inspiration. Thank you also, Jen, for the teaching metaphor. I am delighted that you see this trail of light as my teaching, and that you feel I have helped you understand who and what you really are. I may inspire your art, Jen -- but it is you who makes that art. I am honored that you have taken me along for the ride!
Jennifer Zhou30-May-2005 14:45
Phil, your photos always have this power: using the most subtle ditals to make a big difference.

I never realize in this dark room the carpet is so colorful until the lights fall on to it. What that tells us? Life sometimes seems so dark and dull, until we let new lights in, until we learn to see things differently, until we notice sometimes eyes can fool us and what we have been insisting in is not always right, until we open our heart and soul.

Phil, you are this simple trail of light, someday falls on to me, and let me see the truth about myself which I never knew and appreciated before. Thanks, for this wonderful inspiration!!
Phil Douglis29-May-2005 19:04
Thanks, Anna, Ana, Mikel, Catriona, and Tim, for these comments. Since they were all waiting for me, I will answer them collectively in this response:

Anna: You are right -- the squeeze explodes in lush greenery. Yet alas, it is but a dream. We are still sealed inside of a hotel lobby, and the greenery we see is on the other side of a glass window.

Ana: I find it fascinating that instead of squeezing nature, you see this image as a road to freedom, and also as my self portrait. I initially thought you meant that my personal concerns about man's precarious balance with nature were coming through here, and since we often photograph who we are, and often we are what we photograph, you concluded that this image is really all about myself. But you have gone far beyond that here. You call this image a road map to expressive photography itself, and you attribute that long splash of light to the inspiration and knowledge you have gained from this cyberbook. Thank you, Ana, for this thought. I am thrilled that you see this image in this way. Keep walking that road with me!

Mikel -- I was amazed at your interpretation of this scene as a road through a dark city of man, leading to the embrace of nature in the distance. Gotham City, indeed! That fellow at the end, however, is too absorbed in his newspaper to leave the city and leap out of that window.

Catriona: You are a mother, and you see this image like any mom would. (In fact, there was a little boy in one of those chair enclosures -- he was kicking the chair as I was making this image.) Your metaphorical reminder to enter our surroundings instead of ignoring them, is well taken.

Tim: You see much of what I saw. All that is left within the domain of man is controlled and precise. There is no room here for the randomness of life, at least until we follow that rainbow floating on the floor and move into the realm of nature outside of that window.

Thank you all for entering this image and coming away with so much.
Tim May29-May-2005 16:25
The starkness and angularity of this image shocked my eye - I find it so harsh and controlling - I know that nature is there behind the window - but even that nature is "landscaped" nature created by humans. - yet in the desert of Arizona the oasis - whether man-made or natural - is always welcome.
Another aspect of the image is the rainbow of the color in the rug - here the "gold" at the end of the rainbow is the natural.
Guest 29-May-2005 14:59
I know what my two children would be doing here - playing stepping stones with the light and making a joyful noise in this quiet looking place! I think that this image shows the emotional power of light and nature. The man is lost in his own thoughts and world reading the paper, ignoring the beautiful surroundings. The light trail is a reminder - take notice of your surroundings.
Guest 29-May-2005 10:20
Very good shot, I agree with your announcment here though I have to recognixe that I saw something else quite different... It is quite incongruors.
The first thing that came to my mind was as if it were the paint strips on a road like if the loby of the hotel wold be a dark city, with those sofas on the left like if they were buildings, though I recognize that thos human figures in the end were a bit out of place. ;) However, this road was leading to the trees behind, to the lightly nature that is beond the city. A road going from 'Godham City' to the peacefull nature.
Ana Carloto O'Shea29-May-2005 06:47
This one is fantastic!!I guess you've sent me the link to this one first, because you knew that I would fall in love with it the second I looked at it, right?? The way the light stretches itself through the photo, showing us the carpet colours is absolutely fantastic, but at the same time the light has "painted" a road right before our eyes!! And despite this being a very peaceful photo, I just feel like jumping into the screen and run where the road will take me, flying out the window into the world outside....
It's a photo about pointing directions into freedom ;-) We just have to follow our imagination here.
Actually, I believe that this one is a self-portrait! This is Phil Douglis pointing us the way into expressive photography, you are the light, that has painted the road for us that are willing to see it...
Congratulations on this excellent self portrait of your soul!
Anna Yu29-May-2005 05:01
Perhaps we can squeeze away nature for a little while but she will always be uncontrollable. Look at the lush green that the light is leading the eye to.
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