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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Two: Travel Incongruities > Performance, Barcelona, Spain, 2011
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27-NOV-2011

Performance, Barcelona, Spain, 2011

Barcelona’s La Rambla is known for the street performers that earn a livelihood along its curbs. This “living statue” seemingly carries on a cell phone conversation in absolute silence. The green and white paint that covers everything but his phone is an incongruous touch, making into a figure of “living concrete.” I focused closely on him with my 400mm telephoto lens to bring up detail, and remove all conflicting details from the frame. I wanted to make a “silent” image, and I think I’ve achieved it.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2
1/200s f/5.6 at 189.0mm iso400 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time27-Nov-2011 04:01:32
MakePanasonic
ModelDMC-GH2
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length189 mm
Exposure Time1/200 sec
Aperturef/5.6
ISO Equivalent400
Exposure Bias-0.66
White Balance
Metering Modemulti spot (3)
JPEG Quality
Exposure Programprogram (2)
Focus Distance

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Phil Douglis06-May-2018 19:12
I did too, Merri. Street performers who become "living statues" base their craft on the principle of incongruity to begin with. And I, as a photographer, tried to intensify that incongruity by limiting (abstracting) what I show here. If you were present with me when I made this image, you would have been looking at the entire person and all that surrounded him. However the camera allows us to restrict what we actually see, entirely to what we intend to say. And this is what I've tried to do here. Glad you enjoyed sharing this image with me.
Merri 05-May-2018 23:02
Before I read the caption, I thought I was looking at a "not-real" person and I didn't quite get the incongruity. It became obvious when I learned this was a street performer. Not just a cell phone and silent conversation, but it's incongruent for me to see a person imitating art so well, I literally took him for a statue.
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