What is the difference between photographs that are mirrors or windows?

Mirrors tends to classed as quite subjective and romantic. It has denotations of a photographers sensibility of view which is a projection of self. Windows is objective, it explored the exterior region and illustrates reality and presence

1. Read two texts above (John Szarkowski’s introduction and review by Jed Pearl) and select 3 quotes form each that is relevant to your essay.

John:

“The pictures included here are arranged in two
sections,”

Szarkowski suggests that there is a,
“fundamental dichotomy today between photographers
who believe that all art is concerned with self-expression
and those who see it as a means of exploration”

“Art is a mirror, reflecting a
portrait of the artist who made it, and those who see it as a
window, through which one may better know the world”

Jed:

White, toward an idealist, “romantic” goal of “self-expression,” a “mirror” that primarily describes the self; Frank, toward an introverted “realism,” involved with the “exploration” of a private “window” on the world.

“the general movement in American photography in the past quarter-century has been from public to private concerns”

 Now, in Mirrors and Windows, he presents a binary theory of photography as art: an evolution from public to private concerns

2. Select two images, one that represent a mirror and another that represents a window as examples to use in your essay.

3. Use some of the key words that you listed above to describe what the mirrors and windows suggest.

Mirrors: subjective, personal, romantic, sensibility, private, expression, projection and complex,

Windows: objective, exterior, documentary, tableux, public, escape, landscape, still life, explore, world and elements