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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Fifty Three: creating energy through tension > Monk, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 2008
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10-JAN-2008

Monk, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 2008

This image is an exquisite contradiction. The monk at first glance seems utterly relaxed as he watched me make pictures of him. I was using the full 420mm extension of my telephoto zoom, so he could not be exactly sure of what I was doing. I made this image as a silhouette to abstract his appearance and facial expression, and instead call attention to the outline of his body, crouched on the step of his residence. His hand is utterly limp, expressing a person at rest. Yet that hand hangs poised within an inch of his face, and there is considerable tension expressed within the sliver of negative space that flows between the hand and head. He may appear to be relaxed, yet his mind is working and the energy of those thoughts emerges through that tension.

Leica V-Lux 1
1/250s f/4.0 at 88.8mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis19-Jan-2008 20:54
If he had been sitting in the full light, I would not have made the picture -- it is the relationship of light and shadow that makes this image say what it says.
monique jansen19-Jan-2008 09:57
Nice study in light and shadow too
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