[Photo Essay] Embracing Mirror Worlds

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” Heraclitus

Hi everyone. Today I simply wanted to share a small revelation with you. Last week I went on a photo walk for a few hours. I walked through the same streets I always walk through. Every street photographer knows that you can’t walk into the same street twice, so I never worry about visiting the same locations. There are always new things to see.

Near the beginning of the walk, I took these two abstract photos through glass panels.

At this point something clicked. Up until now I had always used reflections sparingly, to help with composition, or to add a nice abstract touch to a corner of a photo. Take this photo below. There are reflections in the photo, but I am still photographing subjects through the window. You can still tell what’s going on.

So this time I decided to do things differently: I decided that I would get lost in the reflections. I would spend 15mins in front of every window with an interesting reflection and discover the world within. I wasn’t focused on finding a subject around the window or behind it, I was diving into the reflections and finding new compositions in these new-found layers. You could say that I fully embraced my abstract side.

The highlight of the evening was the following series, which I call “Madam”. There was a window ad for some lipstick, I think. As in most shopping streets, there was a huge poster of a woman behind the glass. As I dove into the reflections, I could see the street behind me and the people walking by. I could compose a photo of people walking by in the street, through a poster of a woman. I could only see this photo after I really decided to dive into this world, and yet I’ve been taking reflection photos for almost two years now. It’s crazy how we’re blind to so many things until we decide to look at them.

So what did I learn? I learnt that finding what I love takes time and experimentation. I learnt that it requires a mindset of openness to new ideas, and I learnt that I shouldn’t care about chasing likes with “classic” street photography, and should embrace my abstract side regardless of what people think.

Another photo from the same walk. Not a reflection, but I wanted to share anyway.

People look at me in the street and wonder what I’m doing taking photos of windows for hours on end. But never do they actually stop to discover the incredible things I see there.

“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupery