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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty-Eight: Telling stories with pictures > Conversation, Beijing, China, 2007
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18-SEP-2007

Conversation, Beijing, China, 2007

I thought that I had already made my last shot on this trip as our taxi crawled through Beijing's rush hour traffic on our final evening in China. I was wrong. We were stalled opposite a bus, and we saw in its window this conversation taking place between a young child and an older man, perhaps his grandfather. I can imagine the conversation – the little boy has asked a question about something he has just seen from this window, and the older man responds with thought, care, and love. The child listens – he is awestruck by what he hears. He may long remember this moment. It is a story based on the interplay of body language and expressions. I hope it brings back memories of similar conversations my viewers had with their elders when they were this child’s age. I know it does for me.

(My friend Tim May, shooting along side of me, made an image of this scene an instant later. It offers a
vivid and very amusing contrast to this image. See: http://www.pbase.com/mityam/image/93926500 )

Leica V-Lux 1
1/30s f/3.6 at 46.0mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis20-Nov-2007 16:39
Intimacy is a perfect word for this image, Mo. It is not easy to find intimacy on a bus in the midst of a traffic jam, but that is the case here. Photography allows us to save such moments forever, as you note. It is fortunate that this bus pulled up next to our taxi at that moment, allowing Tim, Iris, and myself to interpret the moment, each in our own way. I look forward to seeing their pictures of it when they post them.
monique jansen20-Nov-2007 13:44
You show the intimacy between a grandfather and his grandson so beautifully here, a moment captured forever now.
Phil Douglis24-Oct-2007 19:17
Thanks, Chris, for recognizing the role of both time and frame here. I made images of several different moments in time, and this one said the most to me. I recognized the value using a frame within a frame here as well, and the half open window creates an additional frame, all of which help to draw the eye of the viewer into the image.
Chris Sofopoulos24-Oct-2007 10:59
Amazing photo Phil. Perfect timing and frame!
Phil Douglis15-Oct-2007 05:22
Thanks, Tim, for adding to this discussion. It does not really matter when you decide to comment on a picture. Your words always add dimension to my image and what I am trying to teach with it. You make two very important points here -- first, how the softness in the image tends to add a nostalgic touch. As you know, I never evaluate an image in terms of its technical factors alone. I ask instead if the technique adds to meaning. In this case, a slightly soft image enhances the moment I am trying to interpret here. Who knows -- the bus or our taxi might have been actually moving at this moment, adding a touch of fortuitous camera shake that helps the image say what I wanted it to say. And secondly, you are right about the viewer being the ultimate decision maker in terms of meaning. Each person will see what he or she wants to see in this image. My job as a photographer is to make my viewers think, feel, and imagine. If I can do this, my image is expressive, and I will be a good story teller.
Tim May14-Oct-2007 23:31
I must remember to comment earlier on your images - most of what I feel has been said - two things, though, that I notice - the image seems a little soft to me (no wonder since I was sitting next to you in the taxi when you took it and we all scrambling to get an image out one small window before the traffic snarl cleared) but I think the softness here add to the sense of nostalgia. The other is the line down the middle which for me reminds me that the gentleness of this image is partly in the eyes of the viewer - we create the sense of love shown here - who knows maybe the grandfather was scolding the child just a few moments ago. Images are so dependent on the viewer.
Phil Douglis06-Oct-2007 21:34
Your comment further illuminates the story this image tells, Jenene. I now see the human value of innocence at work here. It was at the core of your relationship with your own son, and so it echoes here as well. It is a universal human value -- the innocent mind, trying make sense out of what it sees and learns.
JSWaters06-Oct-2007 02:36
The image of this gentle man and his trusting young charge does indeed elicit a universal reaction. It serves to remind me of the importance of acknowledging a child's questions about the world and how important it is for a child to have a guardian who encourages that search. On a personal note, it fills me with the memory of my youngest son, who from about age 3 until 8 or 9, would lie in bed every night and ask me questions and tell me stories about all that he had experienced that day. Until he had put it all in order, there was no rest. I treasure that memory more than I can say.
Jenene
Phil Douglis05-Oct-2007 19:02
Thanks again, Rusty, for commenting on the quality of light (and indirectly, color as well) in this image. There were a number of factors at work here. The image was made at 5:30 pm, during the "golden hour" of a sunny summer evening. The colors are warm, the angle low, and a setting sun illuminates the man's hair and the back of his neck. Because the balance of the scene is in shadow, the light is soft and indirect. I use "cloudy" white balance, which warms the image. I use spot metering, exposing on the brightest spot, the man's hair, and allow everything else to go a bit darker. The Leica V-Lux 1 offers a color palette that some call "old masterish" Add all of these factors together and you can see how and why I was able to meld light and shadow to create the effect you see here.
russellt05-Oct-2007 18:40
I'll make an additional more technical comment. there is such a thing as an attractive light falling on a face, such that features and expression are modeled in an attractive way with light and shadow. like in a rembrandt painting. or a photo by henry cartier bresson or annie liebowitz. or by you. this thing does not exist in most photographs.
Phil Douglis05-Oct-2007 17:16
Thanks, Rusty, for bringing up those blank spaces. You are right. The image asks as much of viewers as it gives them. And yes, there is a universality about this image that takes this conversation well beyond a Beijing bus. The man looks in one direction, the child looks at us, while both seem to be speaking and listening at the same time. What are they saying and what are they thinking? All our answers are likely to say more about us than about them.
russellt05-Oct-2007 12:15
this is one of my favorites of your recent series. there is something about a photograph which although unsought strongly suggests itself out of the blue. as commented, there is something about a universal experience which provides blank spaces for the viewer to go inside and fill in. the soft light is quite beautiful, and beautifully exposed.
Phil Douglis02-Oct-2007 18:19
Thanks, Celia, for pointing out the tension between a private moment shared in a public space here. That tension is often featured in urban images. For example, Robert Doisneau's famous "Kiss by the Hotel de Ville" features a very intimate moment that is utterly ignored by the other people in the picture. (http://www.masters-of-photography.com/D/doisneau/doisneau_kiss_full.html ) You are right. Just as the lovers in Doisneau's image stress the strength of their love in their chaotic world, the quiet conversation between this boy and that man is indeed a moment of purity, privacy and intimacy on a crowded bus.
Cecilia Lim02-Oct-2007 12:07
What I love about this image is the idea that this boy and his guardian still managed to find a special moment to connect with each other, even when they're in a very public place. The boy sits on his lap and they are in a world of their own blocking out the other people crammed in their bus, surrounded by vehicles stuck in heavy traffic. It stresses the purity and strength of love in this chaotic world.
Phil Douglis01-Oct-2007 18:18
Thanks for pointing out the way the child's head seems to fit like a piece of a puzzle into the neck of the man. His head seems to glow at the point. Your puzzle metaphor is intensified by the way the silver bar and the edge of the sliding window pane cross next to the child's ear. Thanks for helping us to see this image in still another way Cyndy. Life is like a puzzle for this child. He is in the process of putting those pieces together.
Guest 01-Oct-2007 17:01
Yes, this is indeed an image that speaks a universal language. I love the expression on the child's face--you can just see him thinking, absorbing. And the way his head fits like a puzzle piece beneath the elder's chin. So moving.
Phil Douglis29-Sep-2007 04:07
Thanks, Charu. This is indeed a universal image. Here you are in India, and there is Melvin in Singapore, each looking at an image made in China by an American, and yet feeling much the same emotional tug. And I never pack my camera away until the trip is over -- you never know what might happen, even from the back seat of a taxi stuck in Beijing traffic.
Guest 29-Sep-2007 03:00
somethings are universal - just so similar in lands across the world! this image is a powerful reminder of that fact... very simple elements but very powerful. thanks, Phil for this - i am glad you hadn't packed your camera away for the day!
Phil Douglis28-Sep-2007 19:27
Thanks for sharing this story with us, Melvin. I can still remember sharing such moments with my own children, now grown, and some with children of their own. There is a wonderful innocence to your son's thoughts, just as there seems to be in the face of this child.
Guest 28-Sep-2007 15:44
Phil,
This image in timely as it reflects on a similar situation that happened just a few minutes ago.
I have just returned from Vietnam after a 9 day business trip. As I sit in front of my computer, my 7 year old is asking me questions and telling me about his days whilst I was away. My wife had told him a story about eskimoes and he said he wants to dream of being with them tonight, so he went to bed with a winter cap on. He is now sleeping and I as look at him, I feel a lump in my throat.
Thanks for this image.
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