Question: What are the differences between photographs that are windows and mirrors?

Mirror photographs are romantic expressions of the photographers sensibility and shows a reflection of the photographer. Mirror documentation in photography provides an insight into our inner world, projecting our own subjective interpretation or attempting to reveal our inner world to an outside audience.

Window photographs show the exterior world in all its presence and reality. They document the world around us and provides the viewer with a window on that world.

Key words:

MIRRORS: tableaux, subjective, romanticism, fiction, staged, personal, reflective, internal, manipulated, personal

WINDOWS: documentary, objective, realism, candid, public, external, truthful, straight, optical, views, aesthetic, external

The difference between these two images is that the first one clearly looks staged, and it is reflecting the artist as if it is a mirror. Whereas, the second one looks more natural and it is an example of viewing the exterior world in all it’s reality, through a metaphorical window.

John Szarkowski

John Szarkowski was an American photographer, curator, historian, and critic; best known for his role as the director of the Museum of Modern Art’s Department, from 1962 through 1991.