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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Two: Travel Incongruities > Dreamer, Phoenix, Arizona, 2003
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29-MAY-2003

Dreamer, Phoenix, Arizona, 2003

I found this fellow relaxing at his desk in the reading room of a Phoenix library. By photographing him from a distance, and by shooting into the vast window at the end of the room, I make him seem incongruously small in comparison to the vast space he occupies. My vantage point also allows me to abstract him as a silhouette, making him unidentifiable -- a universal statement of relaxation. He gazes towards the distant city, perhaps dreaming with his eyes wide open, a study in scale incongruity.

Canon PowerShot G2
1/80s f/4.0 at 7.0mm full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis14-Nov-2006 01:23
Celia is always making nice points for us, Theodore. She is my "resident photo-analyst." You should get to know her -- she lives in your home town of KL.
Guest 13-Nov-2006 07:46
Nice. Great point Cecilia. That was a very sharp observation.
Phil Douglis20-May-2006 05:18
I just can't believe what I am now seeing here! Yes, you are right. There is another man four rows in front of this fellow who is in the exact same pose! And yes, it is not only a scale incongruity that makes this picture work (small man in big room) but also the relaxed attitude amidst the severely formal modern architecture of the room itself. You are right again -- dreams are free and human spirit thrives, even in a room where you can't talk louder than a whisper.
Cecilia Lim19-May-2006 21:45
I do love this image - in such a stiff and formal environment of repetition and order, this man breaks out into a moment of relaxation that defies all the prim and the proper! What's fascinating too is that several rows infront of him slightly to the right, there appears to be another sillhouette of his exact same shape. Is that possibly another person feeling and doing exactly the same thing? These people appear to be stuck in a massive world indoors, yet they are dreaming of a world even more massive on the outside. Your image offers a wonderful window into man's nature to yearn for the impossible, for what seems out of reach. Such is the spirit of man that is rarely broken by the limitations of his physical world. Afterall, dreams are free...
Phil Douglis12-May-2006 18:40
Thanks, Joshua, for your comment. I hope you will visit us often.
Guest 12-May-2006 17:57
Great shot.
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