What are the differences between photographs that are WINDOWS and MIRRORS.
Windows include perspectives and ‘show the world as it is’. They invite the person looking to view an outside experience. They also capture life from a distance and promote curiosity and wonder about ‘the outside’.
Mirrors incorporate a reflection which may show a persons mood, feelings and personality. It also portrays specific moments and experiences which reflects a persons identity or story through a mirror image.
Window photographs open up the world for exploration, while mirror photographs invite personal reflection and connection.
John Szarkowski
My favourite quote –“Is it a mirror reflecting a portrait of the artist who made it, or a window, through which one might better know the world”. This is saying that mirrors reflect the society we are in and can reflect a lot about us and how we do things. “Mirrors” are photographs through which a photographer is trying to tell us how he feels about himself. The study of texts that reflect their own identities, experiences and motivations. They also provide insight into the identities, experiences and motivations of others.
“A mirror – a romantic expression of the photographers sensibility as it projects itself on the things and sights of this world; or as a window- through which the exterior world is explored in all its presence and reality” – JOHN SZARKOSKI
The Mirror and Window Analogy.
“MIRRORS AND WINDOWS has been organised around Szarkowski’s thesis that such personal visions take one of two forms. In metaphorical terms, the photograph is seen either as a mirror – a romantic expression of the photographer’s sensibility as it projects itself on the things and sights of this world; or as a window – through which the exterior world is explored in all its presence and reality.”
Mirror Synonyms:
Looking glass, reflector, reflecting, surface, glass, reflect, repeat, match, reproduce, imitate, simulate, reiterate, follow, copy ,mimic ,echo, parallel, correspond to.
Key Words Associated with Mirrors-
Tableaux, subjective, romanticism, fiction, staged, personal, reflective, internal, manipulated.
Window Synonym:
Casement, opening, aperture.
Key Words Associated with Windows-
Documentary, objective, realism, candid, public, external, truthful, straight, optical, views.
Binary Oppositions.
Mirrors- Windows
Subject- object
Inside- outside
Studio- Street
Photo Analysis.
Mirror Image:
Mijanou and friends from Beverly Hills High School spending their Senior Beach Day at Will Rogers State Beach in Los Angeles. Mijanou won the title of “best physique” at Beverly Hills High.
Lauren Greenfield photographs acclaimed chroniclers of youth culture. These photographs reveal insight into the daily lives and rituals of women. Her photos range from extreme to more genuine photographs. She photographs girls of all ages from pre-schoolers to post-grads, with a multitude of different jobs. The thing I admire most about Lauren Greenfield’s work, is her exploration of the peer pressure, exploitation and sexualisation which women experience, and how it may effect their emotions of self-worth.
This photo demonstrates a girl who is not especially rich, but her friends are. The girl is dealing with the pressures of the world, and struggling with keeping up with it all. However, due to her beauty, she is able to enter the popular, higher class group of people. However, she believes in substance over beauty and did not want to be included only for her looks and instead for her personality. This creates a mirror in the image as the main character in the photograph is seeking more than what the eye can see. This photo is a mirror as…
- Two people are looking at each other like a reflection. There is 2 cars next to each other and 3 people in each car.
2. It is also a mirror metaphorically as It is reflecting the girls place and feelings in the group as she is unfocused and shows the lifestyle of Los Angeles an how young people grow up quickly under the influence of Hollywood.
Window Image:
Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C.
Diane Arbus was an American photographer best known for her intimate black-and-white portraits.
This image of young Colin Wood, a skinny boy is stood in Central Park holding a toy grenade in his hand. is seen as ‘iconic’ as it shows the tension between childhood fun and violence, this photo is highly celebrated due to its historical attributes. This photo is a window into the boys life and also a window from childhood innocence and silliness, into adult danger, death and aggravation through war. America’s historic transition from isolationism of the 1950s to the turmoil that would emerge in the late 1960s and 1970s is portrayed in this image.
An iconic image that embodies the awkward tension between childhood tomfoolery and primal violence, this has become one of the most celebrated photographs in the history of the medium. America’s historic transition from the complacent isolationism of the 1950s to the socio-political turmoil that would emerge in the late 1960s and 1970s seems to seethe beneath the surface of this image, underscoring Arbus’ prescience and intuitive understanding of her time.