Afghan Dinner, San Diego, California, 2004 by Phil Douglis

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14-APR-2004

Afghan Dinner, San Diego, California, 2004

On my travels, I always carry a pocket camera with me, even when going to dinner at a restaurant. I want to be ready to explore any picture opportunity that might come my way. While visiting San Diego, I ate at an Afghan restaurant that featured a decorative wall hanging based on Steve McCurry’s haunting portrait of an Afghan girl. I noticed an elegant table setting just below it, and two silhouetted diners in the background enjoying a delicious Afghan meal. From the vantage point of my table, the piercing eyes of the Afghan girl seem to be looking into our souls – eyes that have known only poverty and suffering, now staring incongruously at us in a place of plenty. Using Canon S-400 “digital elph” pocket camera, I was able to unobtrusively make this shot without flash at 1/80th of a second at ISO 200. By placing a universal symbol of need within a scene of abundance, I create an incongruity that asks questions and demands answers from the viewer.

Canon PowerShot S400
1/80s f/3.5 at 12.9mm full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto

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Phil Douglis		31-Aug-2006 17:12
Her face is timeless, Chris. She is very much in the mold of Michaelangelo's expressive faces. It comes, of course, from the eyes and cloak. I am making an image of a work of art based on another work of art, and putting it into a social context worthy of thought. So many different factors are at work here, Chris -- the original National Geographic photograph which must rank as one of the greatest portraits of the 20th Century, the decision of this restaurant to incongruously hang this haunting image of poverty above the tables of wealthy diners, and my own decision to tell the story from this angle of view. Glad you feel its strength.

Chris Sofopoulos		31-Aug-2006 09:39
You have chosen the proper angle Phil. The perfect juxtaposition among the poor and the welth and with her look directed through our eyes. One of the stronger images I have ever seen. Since many days I try to remember which face bring to my mind this afgan girl. Finally today I remembered. Her face is like the paintings of Michelangelo in the Capella Sistina in Italy.

abdul hadi wahdatyar		20-Apr-2006 19:07
let me just say thank you for posting this beutiful picture thank you sir

Phil Douglis		09-Dec-2005 18:29
Thank you for this comment -- I was moved by your interpretation and agree wholeheartedly with your concept of melding the spirit and the eye to express meaningful ideas. Chiaroscuro is essentially contrasting light and shadow created by light falling unevenly on the subject. I use chiaroscuro here to relate the three elements that make up the triangular axis of this image -- the table at the bottom, the framed photo at the top, and the diners in the background.

Herve Blandin		09-Dec-2005 06:40
Hi, Phil wonderful galleries, i like that you are not sacrificing the message for prettiness or top faming, though this one is quite virtuosic, I like the that the contradiction between the 2 realities (besides being decades away) is finding a common ground as if both were shone upon by the same light. The chiarroscuro that spells elegant and discreet in the dining room becomes an emotional chiarroscuro of anguish and apprehension in the picture. A very sophisticated image, and I think here you did a bit of deconstruction, taking what had become an object of consumption ( a "mc Curry" pix) back to asking us a question. This illustrates so perfectly how both the spirit and the eye have to be together for photography to be meaningful.

Phil Douglis		28-May-2005 00:22
The lighting creates an emotional mood in this image that enhances the incongruity, doesn't it, Jing? The frame was indeed striking. It is also symbol. Not only does it look powerful and strong, as you say, but represents to me a form of imprisonment. This woman will never be free to live a life of her own choosing. And the frame, which to me resembles a door to a jail or dungeon, symbolizes that.

Jing		27-May-2005 20:52
I love lighting in this photo. I cannot help but love the frame around Steve's "Afghan girl" portrait (that frame looks so powerful and industrial strong). :)

Phil Douglis		22-Dec-2004 21:03
Mikel, your feelings do not contradict mine at all. They add a new dimension to my image. I was fascinated by your interpretation of the metallic picture frame as a prison. Looking it again, I would have to agree that those four bolts in the frame are reminiscent of bolts on a dungeon door. That symbolism changes everything for me. She does indeed now seem to peering out of window of a prison cell, a window leading to a world she will never see. (I am sure the professional decorators who designed this elegant restaurant would be shocked by the symbolism you perceive here.) And yes, I was aware of McCurry's reunion with this woman, whose life has, as you say, been one of great hardship. You have photographed the Afghan people yourself, and know all too well the disparity between their lives and the lives of those who regularly dine in such surroundings as these.

Guest		22-Dec-2004 19:57
Well, welcome to my contradictory feelengs... You Phil know why. First of all, the lighining of the Seves McCurry's photo gives a certain lifliness to the afghan girl, but un the other hand, the metalic frame makes me think about an imprisonment and her looking throe a small window that leads too a luxurious world that she has never seen and probably never will see. Don't know if you read the reportage of the National Geographic of April 2002, 'the reencounter' of her with Steeve McCurry and her face is a map of hardshift, believe me.

Phil Douglis		01-Dec-2004 23:36
One of the purposes of expressive photography, Clara, is to make people think. It is obvious that this image has taken your mind far beyond my own intentions. I wanted this picture to ask questions and demand answers from you about the irony of decorating a place of luxury plenty with an image of almost desperate poverty and oppression. Instead, this image has led you into a discussion of how art itself (which McCurry's great image is) has been perversely twisted to serve other purposes. Once again, you manage to read provocative new ideas into my images.

Guest		01-Dec-2004 20:15
what i ponder/wonder is how fine art goes so unnoticed these days. it is b/c we are saturated? in primitive times art was mysticism, religion, contact with the gods (sun, etc). now art is personal expression of one's questions, lack of meaning, needs, besides the exhibition of spiritual realizations (more rare indeed). we are almost 7000 million people living so close to each other. art has become advertising, to sell/cheat you whatever. how to regain pure eyes to enjoy art created from enlightenment and to awaken another's soul?

Phil Douglis		07-Nov-2004 23:51
You've got it, Nut!

nut		07-Nov-2004 17:51
This is the incongruous photograph in term of context and abstract. "Need/Poverty-Abundance"

Phil Douglis		06-Nov-2004 04:28
Everyone agrees that this image has become one of the most famous journalistic image of the 20th Century because of those haunting eyes. I like your comparative observation, Maureen. We are overwhelmed with seductive images of lovely women with beautiful eyes. When we encounter eyes as large as these and as shockingly haunted and haunting, we do, indeed, see something less pleasant. I have long told my students to interpret human subjects by looking for meaning in either the eyes, hands, or both. In this case, the message comes from the eyes. It was disquieting eating dinner next to that photograph. It was hard not to feel some guilt.

Guest		06-Nov-2004 03:48
What I come away with when I look at this photo, is how the eyes change everything. If the eyes were smaller, this would have turned into a very seductive woman. Instead, we see something less pleasant. It's all in the eyes.

Phil Douglis		03-Nov-2004 23:22
And that incongruity, Nut, is the point of this picture.

Phil Douglis		02-Nov-2004 17:30
Once again, Nut, an image has made you think. And your thoughts here are very relevant. There is great need in those eyes, and what she needs is on those very tables. Yet she is not there, and will not be able to have what she needs.

nut		02-Nov-2004 13:54
Question is in her eyes and an answer is around her environment. I feel a shame when I see a bottle of wine and wine glass.

nut		02-Nov-2004 12:08
Strong incongruity between what Afghan girl needed in her eyes and all answer are here; of course her answer; what she really need the most; is also show here in the same photo with her hanging photo.

Phil Douglis		30-Sep-2004 22:14
You are so kind, Matias. Thanks for your thought. Phil

Guest		30-Sep-2004 19:34
Beauty is a gift you give us Phil. Thanks.

Phil Douglis		14-Jul-2004 21:53
Thanks, Lynn, for sharing the effect my caption had on you with us. You obviously are passionate about photography as communication. You must really care about images and how they work. That's why you reacted to my explanation of this picture as strongly as you did.

Guest		14-Jul-2004 17:16
Terrific explanation of how you see the image. When you explain it that way, it gives me the chills. Really great!

Phil Douglis		02-Jun-2004 19:56
Thanks once again, Dirk, for your observations. I would be still be kicking myself if I had missed such an opportunity as this -- a case in point for always carrying a small camera with you --wherever you go. You never know when everything will fall together for you, and it sure did here.

Guest		02-Jun-2004 14:28
Hi Phil, Again such an enjoyable story and how good that you always have a camera with you, would have been such a pity if you must have missed this. I love the warm color tones, the quality light, it's almost a Rembrandt mood, and looks very painterly. What a fine series you made here.

Phil Douglis		27-Apr-2004 21:58
Tim: I never looked at it this way before. A fascinating observation. Phil

Tim May		27-Apr-2004 21:20
I love the golden glow of this image - but in terms of subject I am taken by the way one artist's vision can continue to ripple way beyond the first taking. Here is an image taken 20 years ago - placed on a wall for decoration - and moving beyond decoration to art again because of your experience and vision. Art ripples....

Phil Douglis		26-Apr-2004 20:31
From what I understand, McCurry recently was reunited with the subject of this picture -- some twenty years after he made this famous picture of her. She has led a very hard life in Afghanistant, and was not, to my knowledge, compensated for posing for this photograph. it was, after all, a journalistic image, and not a commercial photo. However I did read where there have been some subsidies provided to improve living conditions in her Afghan village as a result of this photo.

Jill		26-Apr-2004 20:06
Almost as famous as the Mona Lisa. Wonder if she is recieving any compensation?

Bailey Zimmerman		25-Apr-2004 20:11
Phil this is a real winner!!! I love the twosome of the glasses & the men.....with the ""voyeur'''' presiding!! Bravo!!

Phil Douglis		25-Apr-2004 06:09
You are so right -- the camera really has very little to do with expressive photography. It is very much like a writer's computer -- we need these machines as tools for our work, but the tools do not express ideas. We do. Thanks for the nice comment on this picture. It was right there for me all evening. She was watching me eat -- those eyes were on my plate the whole time. The camera was on my belt. I had no alternative. I had to shoot this picture.

Wendy O		25-Apr-2004 05:44
I love this one, goes to show you it's the photographer, not the camera. Nice composition, great lighting.

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