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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty-Seven: How using words in pictures can expand meaning > Walking through history, Berkeley, California, 2007
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12-JUN-2007

Walking through history, Berkeley, California, 2007

Berkeley's Telegraph Avenue was the core of counter-culture life in the 1960s. A mural just off Telegraph Avenue tracks the key events of the student rebellion at the University of California that launched a cultural revolution. The words in this image offer context and even a title. The figure at left reads a newspaper bearing the headline “A people’s history of Telegraph Ave.” A barrier reads “Road Closed” – a symbol of the police presence in Berkeley during the student revolt. I saw this student coming when he was a block away and waited for him to enter my frame. His course is defined by a long shadow on the sidewalk – a straight and narrow diagonal that bypasses the complexities that assault him from the wall. Yet the play of light and color in this image bonds him to the past, even if he does not seem to realize it.

Leica V-Lux 1
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blizzard29-Dec-2007 18:48
simpley perfect
it does not get better than this one v
Phil Douglis10-Dec-2007 05:02
Thanks, SD, for the compliment. I had a great subject to work with in that mural, and for that I am indebted to my friend, Bay Area pbase photographer Tim May, who brought us here. We were there for the best light, as well. And that helps greatly. We were patient, shooting here for at least ten or fifteen minutes as various subjects moved past us. We were fortunate that this particular student eventually walked into my frame. It was perfect casting. All I had to do was to select my frame, place my camera on multiple exposure mood, and shoot a burst of several images while he was passing through my viewfinder. This one most expressively tells the story I wanted to tell.
snootydog10-Dec-2007 04:39
Well done.... I can't imagine this being executed any better.
Phil Douglis01-Dec-2007 21:50
Thanks, Chris, for seeing the value of my composition here. The mural itself is very well composed, utilizing the flag as a focal point, and linking it to the shape of the doorway. Those two boxes, one vertical, the other horizontal, link the many characters that walk through history here. I also noticed the way the metal structure coming out of the sidewalk cast its shadow on the sidewalk, along with the long diagonal shadow created by a utility pole and a short shadow of a sign. These three shadows tie the sidewalk to the design of the mural. Art and nature created all of that -- and then it was up to me to complete the composition by integrating the figure of a contemporary student. He was coming towards me with his head down, and as he stepped into the shadow of the lamppost, I released my shutter. The light falls on his face, and on the sweater draped around his neck. Just as he hides from us by turning away from the camera, a painted figure on the wall just a few feet in front of him seems to be hiding his face, too, a gesture of suffering perhaps, as he flees the tear gas fired by police on that day back in the 1960s. Everything falls into place -- then and now -- bonded together by gesture, position, light, shadow, and geometry.
Chris Sofopoulos01-Dec-2007 13:17
Interesting story Phil and even more amazing and strong thinking of how you make your compositions!
Phil Douglis21-Nov-2007 02:28
Thanks, Suwanee -- he's just the right kind of guy for such a scene, isn't he? He looks like he belongs in the painting, yet he refuses to acknowledge it. Such is the nature of youth. Those who do not learn from history, as Santayana said, are destined to repeat it.
Guest 21-Nov-2007 00:12
Your timing is precise and the real person you picked couldn't have been better for this mural. He seems like he's part of the painting, but the spot light hitting his face is a obvious indication he's not. He down cast face express his inner thoughts, in a way, that he refuses to remember what happened, the "road closed" sign supports the expression in a symbolic way. A very expressive image in every way.
Phil Douglis20-Jul-2007 19:37
Thanks, Iris -- I loved your own interpretation of this mural athttp://www.pbase.com/irislm/image/82231798 -- it speaks of the contradictions caused by the ebb and flow of history, while mine integrates the history of that event with the present. Karen was a part of that history, and it was very moving to learn of the effect of my image on her. Power to the Photo, indeed!
Iris Maybloom (irislm)20-Jul-2007 17:24
While those of us who were shooting this mural recognized and remembered its historical context and while we waited patiently for the right person to pass at the right time tying together past and present, it's Karen's response to your image that brought the reality of these turbulent times home. That your image, Phil, so profoundly awakened her memories, makes this image even more meaningful than it already is. Power to the Photo!!!!!
Phil Douglis13-Jul-2007 22:36
Thanks, Kal. He is intent on getting where has to go. He has no time for the past. Only the future matters.
Kal Khogali13-Jul-2007 20:37
He walks the line looking at it. There is intent there, but I wonder if becasue of it he misses the beauty around him? K
Phil Douglis09-Jul-2007 05:20
And thank you, Karen, for your eloquent comment. I am delighted that my photograph "awakens a sleeping part of your life." Your commentary certainly adds an eye-witness layer of meaning to my image in return. Yes, by all means go across the Bay and visit the mural. It warms my heart just to know that you are even contemplating such a visit because of this image. Thank you, Karen.
Karen Mickleson06-Jul-2007 14:45
Well, others here have expressed the moving artistic meaning in this image far more eloquently than I can. For me, it was a personal gut wrench to open this up--I was there. And the first thing I see is the guy covering his mouth from tear gas, and my eyes and nose sting from the memory...I'm taken back to 'struggle sessions' in the political commune I lived in, where we planned 'actions'; to marching down University Avenue with National Guardsmen pointing bayonets at us; to bruises on the back of my legs from being kicked by steel-toed boots; to bonfires on Telly during the fight to save People's Park; to how I got A's from my Sociology professor for planning 'GI's Against The War' demonstrations--and how the earnest 'straightness' of this guy walking down the street would have been treated with (what I now see as immature) contempt....I could go on and on. And to think I'm just over the Bay in Fairfax, and have not bothered to revisit this anchor of my past. I must go see this mural. Thank you for awakening a sleeping part of my life.
Phil Douglis21-Jun-2007 18:41
Your comment brings to mind an incident that happened in one of my workshops. I was displaying a journalistic image made in a hospital intensive care unit of a nurse compassionately tending to a comatose patient. A woman in my class broke down when she saw it. She had just watched nurses tend to her own terminally ill mother in intensive care. She could not look at the picture without thinking of her mother. It was a moving moment for all of us, and all of us learned an indelible lesson that day about how expressive photography works on the emotions. When we look at pictures we bring much of ourselves to them, just as you have done here. This image, because of its personal connection, can mean more to you, because of who and what you are. And because of that, you have been able to see a truth here that others might miss: he may not look at this mural as he passes because he is so familiar with this history that it has become a part of him. And that takes this image to another level of meaning altogether. Thank you for these insights, Jenene.
JSWaters21-Jun-2007 04:24
It's difficult for me to separate myself from this enough to really analyze it properly. My older brother and sister were both students at Berkeley during this time, a time both frightening and exhilarating in it's tremendous impact on young adults involved. I'm impressed that the mural has not been covered with graffiti, which seems to suggest the student and local population still feel the connection to the areas history of activism. The student walking by symbolizes how I feel about myself and those who grew up with this - he walks by seeming to not notice the swirling activity he's passing, when in fact, he's steeped in it and is accustomed to it.
Jenene
Phil Douglis20-Jun-2007 22:56
Beautifully expressed, Tim. George Santayana warned us that "those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." History often repeats itself because no one was listening the first time. If this student was looking into this image as he passed by, this image would tell an entirely different story.
Tim May20-Jun-2007 22:15
"Even if he does not seem to realize it." Is the key for me in this image. Art partly exists to remind and disturb us. This mural is meant to be a history. Yet the 21st century student seems oblivious to the past he is walking through.
Phil Douglis20-Jun-2007 17:28
Thanks, Tricia -- it is a pleasure reading your thoughts, too. If this image can make you think, and think again, when you use your own camera on the streets of KL, it will have earned its place here. Not only does this student blend into the "wall people." He does so without even recognizing that he is one of them. In other words, he is part of the past and present at the same time, just as all of us are. Only most of us only think about the moment at hand, and not the the long road that brought us to this spot.
flowsnow20-Jun-2007 14:44
It's a pleasure reading your text and seeing your point here in this image. It has definitely broaden my thoughts about capturing future subjects next time when I walk in the street. Agree with Aloha, the person walking blends in well with the wall people almost making him like one of them.
Phil Douglis20-Jun-2007 06:39
Thanks, Aloha. You see exactly what I intended to accomplish here. From the beginning, I wanted to integrate life into art. It was simply a question of waiting for the right person at the right moment. Everyone in this image, both real and imagined, seem to be involved in a struggle, either within or without. The scale relationships, the colors, the positioning, and the reactions, all combine to produce this effect.
Aloha Diao Lavina20-Jun-2007 04:48
What struck me first in this image is the tonal similarity between the wall people and the person walking. He seemed embedded in the mural, or the mural seems to include him. The person's body is relaxed while the mural photo shows people in a state of motion, a conflict. These aspects suggest juxtaposed realities, but really all the same life, and make this image an amazing record of the tugs and letting go in human existence.
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