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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty-Two: Adding meaning to scenic vistas > Navajo Reservation, Northwestern New Mexico, 2007
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09-NOV-2007

Navajo Reservation, Northwestern New Mexico, 2007

The Navajo homeland covers 26,000 square miles, occupying all of Northeastern Arizona and spilling over into Utah and New Mexico. Much of it looks like this -- high desert, buttes and mesas, and long roads lined with utility poles. I have built this vista around one of those poles. It brings to this scene a sense of scale and starkness, unfolding in a series of layers. An empty road offers a base layer, with the pole and its wires seemingly springing out of that road. The middleground layer extends all the way to the mesas on the horizon – a vast desert, devoid of human activity. A pale blue and gray sky fills the background layer, occupying two thirds of the image. This vista defines the nature of this place – arid, barren, alternately either very cold or very hot. This is home to the Navajo.

Leica V-Lux 1
1/400s f/7.1 at 21.1mm iso100 full exif

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Phil Douglis13-Dec-2007 22:27
Nice thought, Kal -- it is a harsh land, and a utility line, along with a paved road, is a sign of human activity, even if no humans are present here. I tried to keep this image as stark and simple as the land itself. Thanks for feeling what I felt.
Kal Khogali13-Dec-2007 21:20
In a sense buidling the cables above the ground feels like an attempt to bypass the harshness. It is palpable here. K
Phil Douglis26-Nov-2007 23:58
Desolation can be hauntingly beautiful. And utility poles can make eloquent statements as well.
Patricia Lay-Dorsey26-Nov-2007 23:29
Yes, these were scenes I lived with on my crosscountry train journey in March 2007. And I, like you, did my best to find interesting foreground subjects to give a sense of scale and interest to the background. Often telephone poles and wires were my only choice. I remember trying to anticipate each telephone pole so I could get it in focus as we passed by. What struck me about this country is how vast and unsettled it is. Those of us in urban areas often think "country" means farmland. Oh no, desolate is often the best adjective to describe it.
Phil Douglis19-Nov-2007 04:21
I knew you would appreciate this image, Alina. Hard piece of bread, indeed. You and I take our computers and internet service for granted, but for many on the reservation, electricity and phone service is still a luxury. This image, as you note, tells it like it is.
Alina19-Nov-2007 03:16
I like the photo Phil. Beautiful and unkind scenery. Navajo have hard peace of bread over there. That lonely pole and the road symbolize easier life. Our life
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