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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Twenty Four: The Workplace -- essence of a culture > Laborer, Scottsdale Civic Plaza, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2010
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12-MAY-2010

Laborer, Scottsdale Civic Plaza, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2010

This man is spending hours creating piles of dirt as he works on a turf renovation project in this city park. I backlight him, turning him into a silhouetted abstraction. There were at least a dozen workers doing similar things, and I make him symbolically represent all of their labors. By using my camera’s multiple frame “burst” mode, I was able to shoot twenty or thirty pictures of him within a minute or so, and caught him at the moment his thrusting shovel hangs poised above the dirt, and the lean of his legs rhythmically repeat the lean of the shadows on the wall at far right. The long shadows imply the symbolic presence of a sundial that marks the hours of work that has been done and has yet to be done. That symbolic sundial marks the end of the four level wall behind him, preceded by four repeating bushes.The wall carries the horizontal flow of action across the entire frame.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1
1/800s f/8.0 at 51.0mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis30-May-2010 18:59
Thanks, Jim.
jlm24-May-2010 18:36
Excellent shot
Phil Douglis17-May-2010 18:09
Thanks, Iris -- I think that sense of essence and dignity you mention is implied through the abstraction, which makes him a universal symbol of labor. rather than describing his identity and appearance.
Iris Maybloom (irislm)17-May-2010 00:44
Your image expresses the essence of labor and brings dignity to a seemingly arduous and repetitive task.
Phil Douglis16-May-2010 23:50
Great to hear from you, Kal. And thanks for equating the symbolic interplay of shadow and light as "striving to shovel the dark away into the light." That is a thought provoking concept that makes the image into a social comment.
Phil Douglis16-May-2010 23:50
Great to hear from you, Kal. And thanks for equating the symbolic interplay of shadow and light as "striving to shovel the dark away into the light." That is a thought provoking concept that makes the image into a social comment.
Phil Douglis16-May-2010 18:43
Thanks, Claudia, for that nice comment. I am glad you are learning so much from these images, and that they are making you more aware of the meaning and possibilities that await you as photographer. And thanks as well, Tim, for noting the dirt falling off the shovel. It is about to fall on one of those many piles of dirt he has been moving from place to place all morning.
Tim May16-May-2010 16:47
As you know I love to capture the moment - here you have done that plus - I am not sure if it is just a smudge on the wall, but you seem to have caught the dirt falling off the shovel.
BleuEvanescence16-May-2010 13:55
You really are a wonderful teacher...and this image says that too. With each picture you make, and each comment you write, we learn and have no choice but to be even more aware...
thank you!
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