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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Twenty Nine: The Layered Image – accumulating meaning > Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, New Mexico
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15-JUL-2005

Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Between 1821 and 1880, the Santa Fe Trail connected Missouri with New Mexico, carrying covered wagons, stagecoaches, gold seekers, trappers and emigrants across the heart of the Old West. It was put out of business with the coming of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880. Yet thousands still trace the trail as a historical experience, and this is what they pass as they enter the last few hundred yards of its route as it winds its way into the heart of Santa Fe: art galleries selling romanticized sculptures of Native Americans. I made this image in the early morning, using this sculpture as my foreground subject layer. But the reason I made this picture was the middleground context layer – the seven diagonal shadows cast by the protruding roof beams of a gallery building. They rhythmically carry the eye across the frame to the sculpture, and I use them as metaphorical drumbeats that accompany the buffalo skull hunting ritual being performed by this figure. A third layer comprises the background, a tree incongruously rising between two stucco walls. It is a symbol of the natural world, a refreshing counterpoint to the man made forms that otherwise fill this image.

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Phil Douglis07-Feb-2007 20:15
You and Tim both see this image in similar ways, Ceci. It comes as no surprise. Both of you are pacifists, and very sensitive to injustice and racism. For you to see this image as a metaphor for the systematic destruction of Native American culture is not surprising. Tim felt the same way, only he uses different words to express it. I did not intend this image as a jab at "Manifest Destiny" but I can certainly see why both of you came to that conclusion. When we respond to photographs, we will often project our own beliefs into the image and come away with impressions that mirror our own agendas. That is what you do here, and I am delighted that this image stokes your passion for justice, Ceci.
Guest 07-Feb-2007 07:15
This represents for me the white man's depredations against the Native people of America, and especially against the food of the Plains Indians -- the buffalo, which Europeans came in droves to slaughter from the comfort of the new railway that spanned the continent. They invented the "Iron Horse" and used it to effectively destroy a creature which once roamed in such abundance over the west that they seemed uncountable, and unlimited. The sharp shadows all point at the rider's chest, representing for me the repeating rifles which signalled the beginning of the end for the various tribes. Their stone age weapons were no match for this technology. The warm brown of the adobe is like the earth over which these people rode, the buffalo skull seems to be offered to the Great Spirit in prayer for protection and continuation. The jutting wood hints at the prisons into which so many of The People were driven, simply for resisting genocide. And the green vine above it all symbolizes for me the fleeting nature of the earliest true Americans, gone with the advent of the icy blasts of white humanity from across the Atlantic.
Sheena Xin Liu18-Oct-2006 00:15
It is a compelling composition. A great amount of strength and energy has been incorporated into this image. The light and shadow enforce the magnitude of the power.
Phil Douglis16-Aug-2005 23:58
You have taken these shadows, Tim, and given them a bold and profound symbolic meaning. As I pointed out in my response to a comment you made on my image of the shadow of this same sculpture athttp://www.pbase.com/image/46539024 , our sanitized, idealized, romanticized, and commercialized view of history has obscured, distorted and revised the facts of the matter. I think your interpretation of these shadows as a prison is quite effective. In this way, the Indian figure appears to be emerging from that prison, into the light of day, implying perhaps that it might be time for all of us to face this matter, once and for all. Thanks, Tim, for adding this dimension of meaning to this image for us.
Tim May16-Aug-2005 23:51
Here I resonate with the shadows which speak to me of the way the past, especially our past with Native Americas creates a prison on our present idealized view of history.
Phil Douglis25-Jul-2005 18:10
Without the effect of light and shadow on this image, Kal, there is no expression, just a description. I am glad you had to work a bit at it, too -- the bold series of shadows create an abstract pattern on the wall, conveying a striking dimensional effect that asks questions and demands answers from the viewer.
Kal Khogali25-Jul-2005 11:38
When I first saw this I was not quite sure what it was, but I fealt it ritualistic,. The sculpture making an offering to the sun god, represented by the strong shadows. The figure in turn is bathed in the sun free of the shadows. It is a very moody picture and as with the first image of the paintings in this gallery, the impact of the lighting is key to enhancing the layers.
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