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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Fifty Four: Opposing diagonals – composing with triangles > Mental exercise, Jade Mountain temple, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2007
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18-DEC-2007

Mental exercise, Jade Mountain temple, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2007

Hanoi residents enjoy board games outside this temple, which stands on a small island in Hoan Kiem Lake in the center of the city. The players and onlooker had already arranged themselves into a triangular relationship. I recognized its value as expression – the man on top, the only one facing the camera, may be on the outside, yet for us, he is the person we most identify with. Seated at the apex of the triangle, he becomes a symbolic referee, the judge, and the jury.

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Phil Douglis12-Feb-2008 18:24
Thanks, Charu, for introducing the concept of the triangle as an outsiders perspective. This concept works best when there is a neutral person at the apex of the triangle, as is the case here. The onlooker here is very much involved in the game but he can't interfere. It is his game to watch, and ours as well.
Guest 12-Feb-2008 06:03
thanks for making me think about composition in this way, Phil. when I think about it, a triangle also means to me, an outside perspective - that is perhaps what a third element provides (as we say, "third person - not entirely personal) - as here, the onlooker provides a different perspective to this game, which the participants themselves are unaware of....
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