Task 1: What are the differences between photographs that are windows and mirrors?

…is it a mirror, reflecting a portrait of the artist who made it, or a window, through which one might better know the world?” 

John Szarkowski

Windows: These types of images are strictly based on facts and reality(objective), they aren’t staged and usually taken in the decisive moment.

They were… pure and unadulterated photographs, and sometimes they hinted at the existence of visual truths that had escaped all other systems of detection.

John Szarkowski

Mirrors: These types of images are open to interpretation, they aren’t fixed onto a fact(subjective) and are usually staged and personal.

…the camera deals with recording factual things and events that form the subject of the photograph, it only produces a perceived reality that is remembered after the thing or event has passed.

 If a photographer cannot easily record a concept such as the “social class” or “economic condition” of a family or community or region, he can record a partial view that will allow viewers to select details that will help illustrate the truths or lies he is intending to convey.

John Szarkowski

Task 2: Words associated with them:

Windows:

• Closed
• Fixed
• Fact
• Objective
• Realism
• Candid
• Public
• Documentary
• External
• Optical
• Truth

Mirrors:

• Open
• Synthetic
• Fiction
• Personal
• Reflective
• Subjective
• Internal
• Manipulated
• Tableaux
• Psychological

Task 3: Image Analysis

Without context I first thought this image was a “window” because it looked like we were looking into the private personal life or reality of a man; possibly in distress. However, after knowing this image was staged; and the actual room we see the man in was created in a studio, we can say that this image is actually a “mirror” because it has been manipulated and isn’t showing raw reality in the moment.

I personally believe this photograph is both a “window” and “mirror”. This is because although the image is staged and the man wasn’t intentionally laying on the floor, this image acts like a window which shows the reality of some people who suffer from severe insomnia. It is a fact that some people with insomnia try everything they can to get sleep, we can see that this man is being used as a “window” to show this reality.