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Look into the future

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Robert van der Sanden

Free Account, Hooge Mierde

Look into the future

I took this picture in Leuk (Susten), Switserland. There were 50,000 skulls stacked up against the walls inside a small church. The skulls completely cover the wall, which is nearly 20 metres long and three metres high – and the pile is about two and a half metres deep. Every cubic metre contains about 400 skulls.

They were found, hidden behind a series of false walls, in the restauration of the chapel in 1983. Nobody knows exactly how they came there. They could have been dug up from the local cemetry but there is also a theory that they could be the skulls from the soldiers killed in the Battle of Pfyn in 1798, when the German-speaking communities of the Valais fought against the French.

I desaturated the color of the background to get the focus to the boy. The colors in the picture were not so good anyway.

Canon AV-1, 28mm, sidelighting through the church door

Commenti 19

Tilman Stück 18/12/2007 18:51
Reminds me to the catacombs in paris' underground. Surely in Switzerland there were better light conditions.
The monochrome background is in nice contrast to the boy in the front.
Great picture not only for the humor-section.

Greatings, Tilman
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Frank Cecconi 22/12/2005 6:36
Nice shot! Great impact;-) Rgds
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Bernd Br 12/09/2005 23:30
dark humor this title.

I like it,
Bernd
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°°° celle °°° 05/09/2005 18:17
wooow so many skulls....
nice tiltle......good presentation....
best wishes to u robert
greetings
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Tobi Tobias 26/07/2005 10:03
This picture reminds me to "L´Inconnue de la Seine" in the catacombs of Paris. I´m working for a photographer who has taken this picture: http://www.ansgarmariavantreeck.net/galerie/serie_uem/uem_inconnue.htm

Nice pictures you take!!!!
Greetings from germany...
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Robert van der Sanden 01/07/2005 10:01
@Ana: the title is a little joke, this is how we might end up in the future, when our time has come...
Thanks for leaving a note.
Robert
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Anastasiya Ivanova 01/07/2005 4:45
I would name it ''look into the past''..now that the skeletons are antique remains. Both impressive and special this picture does, very good!
Greeting
Anastasia
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Maria Kyselicova 30/06/2005 12:25
You take my breath away. Very mood and strong pic.
Colors (as you wrote) are not excellent, but doesn´t matter anyway.
Great idea is high gig.
congratulation.
Maria.
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Kay Wölfle 22/06/2005 11:42
Hi Robert,

the situation caught in the picture is great, although I would prefer the sharpness on the boy.

Greetings Kay
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Mic K 21/06/2005 12:52
red is a difficult colour in photography
analog to highlights
reducing intensity might also help to avoid blurring
cheers
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Robert van der Sanden 21/06/2005 11:57
@Mick: thanks for sharing your thoughts. The lack of sharpness in the boy is due to the jpg-compression. I've gone to 130kB but the red backpack still blurs a lot. The original is sharp though.
I will try to reduce saturation on the boy, see how that looks. Thanks for the hint.
Robert
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Mic K 21/06/2005 11:28
very good picture
intense situation
very expressive
i feel observed
some lack of sharpness (boy)
would not mind also some desaturation of foreground
regards
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Gelak Amdo 20/06/2005 20:02
The picture itself looks very sad not scary and you really caught the right moment of the boy looking at them.
Just wondering what was the little boy thinking at that time.
Anyway very documentary picture, very touchy picture I find.
Regards
Amdo
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Robert van der Sanden 20/06/2005 16:58
@ Jutta: desaturated background? looks more like a dehydrated background :-)
Didn't mean to scare you so better don't look at this picture around bedtime, unless you enjoy a sleepless night...
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Robert van der Sanden 20/06/2005 13:57
@Mick: thanks Mick, what about the picture?
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