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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Four: Finding meaning in details > Walking to the windmill, Bruges, Belgium, 2005
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12-JUN-2005

Walking to the windmill, Bruges, Belgium, 2005

This is not really an image about a windmill. Instead, the windmill provides the context for the most expressive aspect of this image – the two people walking up the hill in matching stride. The meaning of a picture often rests in the detail. This is an image about an evening walk in a beautiful and historical place. These walkers may only be a tiny part of the image, but a critically important one. The more we look at this detail, the more we see. We discover that there are two people incongruously walking in tandem here – their steps in perfect alignment. The scale incongruity of the large windmill towering over the small walkers is intensified by the placement of detail as well. The angle of the rear legs precisely repeat the angle of the lower left windmill sail, linking context and detail in terms of both scale and form. The walkers stride up a hill that is free from clutter and distraction. The slope is defined by deep shadow on all four sides, which is picked up again by the abstraction through backlighting of the windmill itself. It makes it easy for us to pick up the detail instantly, in spite of its extremely small size.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20
1/500s f/5.2 at 16.6mm iso80 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis20-Jun-2006 04:56
Thanks for coming to this image, Jack -- I made it one year ago today and you are the first to comment on it. Glad you see the gracefulness in the placement of the two people who walk together here, matching the sweep of the windmill blades, stride for stride.
Guest 20-Jun-2006 02:37
Love this one. So graceful, both the elegant structure and the figure you caught!!
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