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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Fifty Six: The bus-bound travel image > Road Risk, Rajasthan, India, 2008
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22-MAR-2008

Road Risk, Rajasthan, India, 2008

Big trucks rule the rural roads of India -- people are somehow able to time the gaps, allowing them to make it to the other side. These women made it. But some don't. India accounts for ten per cent of road accident fatalities worldwide. It was a sunny morning, and I was sitting next to the driver of our tour bus, shooting through the huge front window. I was using burst shooting, and the bright light allows me to set my shutter speed at a very fast 1/1000th of a second, allowing me to stop the action of my subjects. This frame worked perfectly to express risk – the two women in brightly colored saris are walking together as one. They are hemmed in between a wall of trucks and a passing motorbike. Will they make it safely to the other side? Their lives seem to be hanging in the balance. The red and white bars painted on every tree that lines the road rhythmically repeat the dotted line on the pavement. The picture is both frozen in time yet those highway lines and painted trees set it into implied motion at the same time, making the risks of road travel seem very real.

Leica V-Lux 1
1/1000s f/5.0 at 88.8mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis25-Apr-2008 19:20
Thanks, Jenene, for noticing the similarities in warning markings here -- the man on his bike could be as dangerous as that grove of trees, at least in terms of potential highway hazards. And yes, it hazardous to drive in India. As I pointed out in the caption, India alone accounts for ten per cent of the world's road accident fatalities.
JSWaters25-Apr-2008 05:23
Yes, it is a hazard to cross such a road, but still more a hazard to drive one? You point out the painted trees which imply danger, and you include the man on motor bike with the same red/white warning markings on his shirt. Wonderful metaphor.
Jenene
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