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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Thirty Eight: The camera as time machine: linking the past to the present > Haunted vision, Flagstaff, Arizona, 2006
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11-JUL-2006

Haunted vision, Flagstaff, Arizona, 2006

While prowling the side streets and alleyways of this old western town, I noticed what appeared to be a feathery face floating in a window. It was looking down at me from within a building dating back to the town's founding. Logic tells me this is just a reflected cloud. But what I feel in this image tells me otherwise. The window is framed in old bricks, and its rippling glass diffuses and distorts the reflection, adding expressive texture to the haunting face that gazes through it. The building, old as it may be, remains very much in the present. Yet the face seems to be a vision out of the past.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30
1/100s f/5.6 at 15.6mm iso80 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time11-Jul-2006 13:56:51
MakePanasonic
ModelDMC-FZ30
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length15.6 mm
Exposure Time1/100 sec
Aperturef/5.6
ISO Equivalent80
Exposure Bias
White Balance (10)
Metering Modemulti spot (3)
JPEG Quality (6)
Exposure Programprogram (2)
Focus Distance

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Phil Douglis22-Jul-2006 16:43
Thank you, Sue, for this comment. You are right -- the contrast in textures is striking. That contrast intensifies the point of the image -- the cloud (or face in the window) is ephemeral. It is there, but only for the moment during which I made this picture. It instantly vanished, yet the bricks remain behind. They are still there in that Flagstaff alley and will be for years to come. But the face is gone forever. The face is the past. The building is the present.
Sue Roberts22-Jul-2006 16:27
i like the texture of the bricks contrasted with the softness of the clouds
Phil Douglis19-Jul-2006 22:11
Celia -- I love your interpretation of this image, limiting the ghost to his domain, trapped in the interior of the house. That becomes the past for you, while the present is reflected in the warmth of the exterior and its sun splashed brickwork. Thanks for this fascinating observation. It expands on my own view that the building is in the present while the face is in the past. And Jenene --you are a wonderful ghost story teller. I like your word "admonish" and your deep respect for the history of place. And if this ghost is speaking directly to me, my image makes him speak directly to you, as well
JSWaters19-Jul-2006 17:59
It is the ghost of a place, a time or an era if you will. At times, he might leave us with a sense a nostalgia and reassurance, and at other times a sadness at finding so much of this historic 'place' dressed in neglect and decay. Your ghost is admonishing us not to forget this history, this era, and he spoke directly to you, Phil.
Jenene
Cecilia Lim19-Jul-2006 14:41
What makes the story of this building even more poignant is the fact that the ghostly vision appears to be inside the building, overlapped by the cross frames of the window. It seems to say that everything related to the building -its history, its soul, its identity are all trapped within the building, suspended in the dark shadows of its past, while life in the present day outside it, which is now basking in light and hope, is changing and moving on.
Phil Douglis17-Jul-2006 19:57
Thanks, Tim, for seeing the Ghost of Route 66 Past in that window. You are right. We are not just looking at the past in that window. We are very much in the present at the same time. It is that tension between between what is past and what is present that provides the basis for the expression here, and indeed for this entire gallery. (As for the two ghosts you mention, it shows you have a wonderfully facile eye and vivid imagination. I only see one.)
Phil Douglis17-Jul-2006 19:55
Thanks, Lawrence for sharing your interpretation of this image with me. If I look at the image with your first impression in mind, I too, can imagine a cigar smoker just below the window. But that was not what I was saw when I made the image. As for the contrast here, as you say it is a matter of personal taste. I always play with various contrast levels and choose the one that I feel best matches the tone of what I am trying to say. The bricks are not evenly illuminate, so I went with a neutral contrast value. Thanks again for your views, Lawrence.
Tim May17-Jul-2006 18:23
I, by the way see two ghostly images here - in one the opening in the cloud by the window frame cross is an eye with an ear slightly down and to the left of it - in the second the opening in the cloud by the window frame cross is a mouth and the little floating cloud about half-way down the right side of the upper left pane is the eye.
Tim May17-Jul-2006 01:45
The Ghost of 66 Past - here to remind us to treasure life and to see deeply in the present.
Phil Douglis16-Jul-2006 19:14
Thanks, Tom --whenever I am studying facades with glass in them, I study the reflections, and how they change as I change my position. I was able to get this cloud right in the crosshairs of the window frame by moving my vantage point.
Tom Beech16-Jul-2006 14:17
I can see why you would take notice in that situation 8-) I like this shot Phil..
Phil Douglis16-Jul-2006 06:50
Good to hear from you, Lara. A ghostly presence is very much a vision from the past. And I can assure you that I did a double take when I saw what was looking back at me from that window. It is as if the ghost is decomposing in front of my eyes.
Lara S16-Jul-2006 05:14
Not just a vision from the past, but an apparition. a ghostly presence. errie. i'm a bit scarred of it, but I keep coming back to it.
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