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Mirror, mirror... tell me what you see
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by Lourens Durand
This is very true, because a mirror always gives a true reflection of what it sees. Well, most of the time, anyway, because mirrors can be shaped so that they appear to fatten and enlarge reflections of objects or to squeeze or compress them. The mirrors can also be broken, and the pieces rearranged to reflect abstract kaleidoscopes or to direct light onto dark areas in subjects.
Using mirrors in photography can be challenging but, using a variety of techniques together with acute observation and recognition of new angles, brilliant results can be achieved.
Apart from the mirror, as we know it, many reflective surfaces give the same result, perhaps on an even larger scale: there are sweeping landscapes with reflections in rivers and lakes; reflections in windows, off buildings, wineglasses, wet floors, soap bubbles and even human or animal eyes.
Favourites amongst photographers are glamour shots with soft reflections and moody character shots with hard edges, telling us a story.
Hand-held mirrors can also be used as tiny spotlights, directing light into difficult areas in portraiture, still life studies or food photography.
Mirrors placed vertically or horizontally over a model’s face or body can produce unusual and striking effects.
An object photographed inside a box made with walls and a floor of mirrors results in a stunning, almost 3-dimensional image, as can reflections of mirrors in mirrors.
Broken mirror photography is an art all on its own, yet not well represented on photographic sites, often yielding bizarre montages or kaleidoscopes, and is also sometimes used to provoke sinister moods. Shards can be hung from strings in front of or behind subjects, or glued onto surfaces, scattered randomly, held by models at unusual angles, yielding weird reflections of the world around us.
The possibilities are endless and represent golden opportunities for creating a stunning array of photographs, some of them unusual, others more traditional.
Besides being a lot of fun and developing artistic creativity, it is an ideal way to pass the time fruitfully during periods of enforced isolation during quarantine, convalescence or just on a rainy day.
Lourens Durand
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