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

As stated by John Szarkowski, in 1974, in an essay he wrote that accompanied the exhibition, “is it a mirror, reflecting a portrait of the artist who made it, or a window, through which one might better know the world?.”

Key words associated with:

Mirrors: tableaux, subjective, romanticism, fiction, personal, warped, reflective, manipulated.

Windows: documentary, depictive, objective, realism, public, candid, straight, external.

Identifying windows and mirrors.

The below image is a window, it allows the viewer of the image to see the world around the boy and the influences that affected him. This photo was taken by Diane Arbus and is titled The boy with the toy hand grenade. It was taken in central park in 1962. The boy in the photo is Colin wood, according to a 2005 article by the Washington Post, written by David seal, Colin has no recollection of having his picture being taken. Colin told Segal that he wouldn’t of posed like this unless he where asked and he recons he was imitating what he saw in war movies. It is likely that Colin was out with his nanny when Arbus came a cross him and grabbed a few shots, due to this it is very much like a documentary image and can be seen as an image reminiscent of the decisive moment.