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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Eight: Light and shadow shape meaning > At the heart of Chaco, Chaco Culture National Historic Park, New Mexico, 2007
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11-NOV-2007

At the heart of Chaco, Chaco Culture National Historic Park, New Mexico, 2007

Chaco Culture National Historic Park is a ruined ancient city in North Central New Mexico. Its origins are still shrouded in mystery -- the Choacoans left no written records. Chaco is a park for the imagination, and this image serves it well through light and shadow. A shadow that becomes detached from its source can often become the basis of an incongruous image. These ruins have been here for more than a thousand years and I wanted to suggest the presence of the ancient ghosts who still might linger here. I use light and my own shadow here to abstract myself and become part of Chaco’s past. The 28mm wideangle format embraces my shadow, a kiva, and the ruined buildings, fusing a tale to tease the imagination of those who will look at this image.

Leica D-Lux 3
1/500s f/8.0 at 6.3mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis13-Dec-2007 06:44
You are right, Jenene -- this image, as I said in the caption and in my response to Patricia, is all about ancient ghosts. You put it so well -- civilizations rise and fall, and leave behind their ruins and their shadowy memories. I include both in this image.
JSWaters13-Dec-2007 05:32
Man is but a shadowy memory in this place.
Jenene
Phil Douglis11-Dec-2007 19:42
Thanks, Patricia, for seeing a lost culture here -- that is what I meant when I said in my own commentary above that I wanted to suggest the presence of ancient ghosts who still might linger here. You take it even further, by noting the importance of the rocks and ruins that once supported that lost culture.
Patricia Lay-Dorsey11-Dec-2007 17:30
For me it is the combination of the universal human shadow coupled with the very particular cast shadows of the cliff dwellings themselves that gives this image its power...and poignancy. A lost culture casting its shadow on the very rocks that supported it.
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