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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Twenty Four: The Workplace -- essence of a culture > Caboose, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2005
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16-JUL-2005

Caboose, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2005

The great age of the railroad has ended. Yet echoes of the railroad as a work place still can be heard, particularly in a town that had a famous railroad named after it. I found this abandoned caboose sitting in a rail yard near the old Santa Fe train depot. As a working tool, the caboose is a relic of the 19th century, a miniature house on wheels at the end of a freight train. This one has become a canvas for graffiti artists. It is hard to know where the past and present meet here – the original lettering on the caboose, signifying the name of the railroad, was a form of street art itself, a proclamation of identity and brand. Only today the brand has changed. This workplace is no more. The brand is submerged. The sides of this caboose have become a place solely for expression. My wideangle lens bends the image surrealistically. In the golden light of a summer evening, the graffiti looks more like street art and less like vandalism.

Canon PowerShot G6
1/1000s f/4.0 at 7.2mm full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis03-Feb-2006 00:13
Thanks, Slow Crow -- if, as you say, you created the art work upon this caboose, not only I am grateful to you, but so are Ana and Kal and Dave, all of whom have enjoyed this image so much. I am glad you think my photograph does justice to your art work. I have photographed graffiti all over the world, and this is the first time I've had the pleasure of sharing the result with an artist who provided my subject matter. Thank you again, Slow Crow, for your art and for your comment.
Slow Crow 02-Feb-2006 23:50
Um this might sound strange but i,m the one who gave you this picture as far as creating it the art work you talk about thanks you GREAT PICTURE
Phil Douglis24-Sep-2005 03:34
Thanks, Dave, for bringing up the incongruity in the "Grande" aspect of this image. As for fall or tilt, I guess it is matter of degree. Yes, this train is tilting which adds a sense of movement -- and it also seems to fall apart before our eyes.
Dave Wyman16-Sep-2005 04:17
There is, for me, too, a sense of irony in this photograph. There's nothing "grande" about the hulking remains of the caboose. Also to me, the photo doesn't seem to show a tilt as much it does a fall - as if the old railroad car is falling backwards under the weight of its own years and the accumulation of the artwork.
Phil Douglis26-Aug-2005 04:40
Thanks, Kal, for welcoming this old caboose to the Internet. The tilt works well, as both you and Ana seem to agree. I am very sensitive about tilting -- because it is done so much as a matter of course, I rarely tilt my pictures but sometimes I have to do so, and this was one of those times. I just had a discussion about tilting with Agnes, my student, and Ana's friend from Hungary, at:http://www.pbase.com/csernovaagnes/obsession. She believes strongly in tilting to imply movement in dance images, and I agreed with her in theory. But by tilting almost every image in a gallery, one sees too much of a good thing, I feel. In any event, the tilt in this image stands alone and is not part of a tilted series of images. And though it is standing still, the caboose seems to move before our eyes. As you say, Kal, it is no longer derelict, which means abandoned. It lives as a work of art, and it lives now here on the Internet, as well.
Kal Khogali26-Aug-2005 02:16
Hmm. I totally concur Phil. I don't use it that often, and i think yours and Marisa's comments on this imagehttp://www.pbase.com/shangheye/image/47986828, made me realise that used well and at the right time, tilting can also create a more three-dimensional effect. Though it wasn't the intention in that image (movement was as in yours), it is also someting worth bearing in mind. As for this image, I don't know how I missed it before, but I love it. For me the irony is that though this train is derelict and some would say fit for the scrap heap, it is now a peace of art. It perhaps gets more "attention" than it ever did in it's lifetime, and has become the depository of people's expression. So much so, that now it is being looked at on the internet. No greater incongruity to me. This train is not derelict, it has entered the internet age!
Phil Douglis30-Jul-2005 07:43
Thanks, Ana, for starting off the comments here. I am glad you felt the movement I intended to imply by tilting the image. Which leads me to an important point. Tilted pictures are very trendy right now. I see them all the time, even in newspapers. Tilting an image is a use of form. But we must be sure that the form has a function. All too many tilted pictures are simply ways to grab the eye and call for attention. But once we look at the picture, then what? In all too many cases, the viewer is simply disoriented, and for no reason.In this case, I used a tilted horizon to imply movement. As you say, "a strange sense of movement." This derelict car is not going anywhere. Yet it somehow appears to be about to move. And that was exactly what I intended. So in this case, form follows function. The titled horizon helps express the idea at hand. As for the colors here, as I said, they are melange of past and present lettering and paint under a deep blue Santa Fe sky at 8,000 feet. I am glad it all blends together for you, Ana. This is an old place of work, struggling with its new identity as a form of personal expression. And therein lies it message.
Ana Carloto O'Shea30-Jul-2005 06:56
Just looking at the sky and the colours of the train would be enough for me to love this shot... Both the tild and the graffiti give this image a strange sense of movement and I caught myself waiting for the train to "jump" into position and start moving. There's no sense of time here, in fact if it wasn't for your note, I think I would be lost thinking if this was a photo of an old train or not, because the graffiti definitely "rescues" it into the present.
I hd an hard time trying to see beyond the colours and the light and sense the abstraction here... It happens sometimes, when I am fascinated by the colours I see nothing else :-)
The bending of the image works beautifully here and I don't think that this shot would have the same impact if it was done with another lenses... No, it wouldn't work. This was the way and you've found it!
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