καιρός remembered

Mirror images

A mirror not only confronts us with ourselves, but can also reflect objects from a part of the room or space around us that would otherwise be invisible from our vantage point. Or it can reflect a side of an object that we would not be able to see without a mirror. In the photograph of the boy combing his hair, our position in front of the mirror allows us to see both his face and the back of his head at the same time, captured in a single image. The presence of a mirror adds an extra dimension that can be utilised in various ways when composing a photograph. It can broaden our perspective or create an intriguing, alienating effect.

The image of the girl in the mirror in this photograph has a somewhat alienating effect. The girl must be in the room, just like the photographer, but all we see is a white, strangely lit space with the mirror image of the otherwise invisible girl in the centre of the photograph. This gives the photograph a dreamlike quality.

And then there is the curious and amusing effect of the almost invisible mirror in the photograph below, which results in the ‘headless man’. Mirrors are strange things.

Photo of the week: Viratnagar, India 2002