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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Fourteen: Expressing the meaning of buildings and structures > Call of the crow, St. Francis Cathedral, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2005
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16-JUL-2005

Call of the crow, St. Francis Cathedral, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2005

Santa Fe is the oldest capital city and the second oldest town in the United States. Founded in 1607 as “the royal city of the holy faith of St. Francis of Assisi,” its highest point is appropriately the uncompleted bell towers of St. Francis Cathedral. The towers are nesting places for crows. As I walked beneath this church early one morning, I heard this crow calling to me. Using my long lens, I characterize this building by reducing it to a series of geometric moldings and cornices topped by a solitary black crow. The elegance and precision of these architectural touches reflect the elaborate effort, knowledge and expense involved in constructing a house of worship, even an unfinished one. The crow, considered the most intelligent of all birds, has been revered and worshipped over the centuries. Combining these elements within a single image is an ideal way to celebrate the nature of this building. (Pun intended.) I don’t describe it here. Rather, I try to express what it means to me.

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Phil Douglis29-Jul-2006 19:42
Thanks for the question, Emi. Placement of subject matter comes down to what you want the picture to say. As you note, in this picture, the bird placed at the apex of the roof echoes the heavenward thrust of the cathedral, so the placement is perfect for my idea. If my picture would have been about birds as little worshippers, a bird fluttering into the open door of a church would have made that point. Of course, as photographers, we don't have the power to place birds where we want them. We must watch carefully and make pictures as the birds themselves decide where they want to come to rest or fly past. As for which comes first, the idea or the shot itself, it can work both ways. In this image, I heard this crow calling to me, saw it sitting at the apex of the roof, and liked the symbolism. So I made the picture. Tim intensified the image for me later with his comment about the bird facing skyward. Sometimes I will have an idea in mind, and wait for something to happen so that I can express it. In my shot of the three Sacred Ibis on that branch in Zambia (http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/55196259 ) I waited for the one in the middle to turn to the right, so that I could imply a conversation in progress. When I began shooting, that placement was not there for me. But eventually, it happened. Hope this helps.
Guest 29-Jul-2006 12:31
I know takinig bird pictures are not easy because they can fly away in a sec and you have to make the shot with quick decision. However, I am wondering, if we/you have a choice to place the bird wherever you want in a picture of this church( like the door of the church or wherever you want to place it at), what is your preference and why? ( I like this point Tim made and I see it the same way about the echoing effect, but if this factor doesnt count, what would be your answer to my question? )

Emi
Phil Douglis10-Oct-2005 23:04
Thanks, Ed. I like your view of the crow as the triangular apex of layers of triangles. Is man imitating nature or is nature imitating man here?
Guest 10-Oct-2005 23:00

I see triangles --layers of them. It then culminates to the crow which in itself is triangular in shape ... it sort of serves as the apex of them all.
Phil Douglis16-Aug-2005 23:30
Thanks, Tim, for adding this important symbolic point. The crow was crowing. It did not occur to me until now that in the act of crowing, this crow seems to be looking towards the heavens, the very same place that a cathedral looks. Thank you pointing it out. It becomes a different image for me now. (A common occurrence, when you visit my images.)
Tim May16-Aug-2005 23:20
I love that the crow is echoing the sentiment of any cathedral and facing skyward.
Phil Douglis25-Jul-2005 18:35
No bird, no expression. Just an abstraction. It was the bird that called me to this shot, Kal. Literally. In the case of the "Pyramid" shot, the birds were flying back and forth and I took a lot of shots to get that one. It often comes down to looking for three things when I go out to shoot, Kal. I look for light first, and how it relates to shadows. Then I look at the clouds, and see if I can see any symbolism there. And finally, I look for either people or birds to add scale and meaning to an image. Only then do I begin to consider the nature of the actual subject I am shooting. If I worked the other way around, I might spend my time looking so hard for suitiable subject matter that I could easily overlook the expressive possibilities of juxtaposing light, shadow, atmospheric clouds, or the presence of people or birds to my subjects to create meaning.
Kal Khogali25-Jul-2005 12:33
Wow! I spent an age waiting to include a bird with an archiectural feature in my gallery The Journey, but birds in china seem to exist only for Alister Bennet (I tell a lie there were some small ones, but nothing dramatic). Why did I want to take such an image? Becasue of this one in your gallerieshttp://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/43986789. Here you use a telephoto to compress the perspective, creating a more intimate but also more eerie expression. Two examples of how meaning can change with perspective.
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