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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Twenty Two: Black and white travel photography – making less into more > Silvius Brabo, Antwerp, Belgium, 2005
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16-JUN-2005

Silvius Brabo, Antwerp, Belgium, 2005

This is an abstract image of the eloquent figure at the top of the historic Brabo Fountain, a monument to Antwerp’s mythical hero, Silvius Brabo. Brabo supposedly drove off a giant that was demanding tolls from all ships that passed the port. Anyone who refused to pay had their hand chopped off by the giant, so Brabo took revenge by slicing off the ogre’s hand and throwing it into the Scheldt River. The town became known as Antwerp – which means, “hands throw” in Flemish. The statue depicts Brabo in the process of hurling the huge severed hand. Water spouts from its wrist. Brabo gives Antwerp its name with this legendary hand toss. I enjoyed relating the geometric form of the powerful sculpture to the stepped forms of the handsome old buildings that line Antwerp's town square behind it. In color, the statue appeared as oxidized green, and the buildings were dark brown. The sky is an overcast gray. I made it a much cleaner, more powerful image by converting it to this black and white abstraction. It becomes a study in pure shapes and geometric patterns, helping Brabo appear to dance along the rooftops of Antwerp.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20
1/640s f/5.6 at 36.7mm iso80 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis11-Mar-2007 06:27
Glad you have worked your way into my black and white gallery, Aloha. You are right -- this is very much a dance of contrasts: the dark against the light, the movement of a human body against the movement of architecture -- and the spurting water which is transparent against the black forms that are opaque.
Aloha Diao Lavina11-Mar-2007 05:19
I love the contrasts in this photograph, the regularity of the structures and then the dancing figure and the water. The composition is made even more lyrical in black and white, for the focus becomes the dance of contrasts.
Phil Douglis12-Dec-2005 00:31
This image is all about strength, Nile. I am glad you feel it here. This statue commemorates a hero who drove off a giant oppressor. It took an act of great strength to do this, and I wanted to make this image feel as strong as possible by using black and white abstraction in this manner.
Guest 11-Dec-2005 23:25
A very strong image. Beautiful !
Guest 19-Nov-2005 04:18
Amazing.
Phil Douglis04-Jul-2005 18:05
I shot this fountain on two different days and in many different ways, Mo. It is a symbol of Antwerp itself, busy, boisterous, and a study in contrasts. I have published four different images of it. On Worldisround.com, in a travel article, I show this part of it in a frontal view, with the city's town hall as its context athttp://www.worldisround.com/articles/187650/photo69.html . Here in my cyberbook, I've stressed its detail athttp://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/45566996 , and its dynamism athttp://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/45572129 .
This image is the most abstract view of it, relating it to the historical architecture that surrounds it. It is my only black and white study of the Brabo Fountain, which really is the only choice here. Color did nothing to express the idea here. Black and white, however, boils it down it shape only, and when we see it merge with the rooftops behind it, the statue also becomes quite incongruous.
monique jansen04-Jul-2005 07:29
Definitely stronger for it in B&W - cleaner, purer, starker.
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