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Making Not Taking

 Making, Not Taking

Photography is not holding a mirror to reality. A camera captures a selected perspective from a point in time, but the truth is a continuum not an instant. 

Clever lighting can drastically affect appearance. A wide or long lens distorts space and distance, while the right instant may depict a totally misleading narrative. Fit a wide enough lens, and the smallest among us will tower over mountains; hit the shutter at the right instant, and lies become truth. 

I elected to convey my cynicism using an actual mirror - a warped old sheet of silvered glass.. Using mirrors to distort space is popular to the point of being cliche, but rarely are they pointed back at the photographer. 

I initially placed the mirror on an easel and  planned remove it in post by compositing a second exposure with neither. Unfortunately, this first attempt was a substantial failure - aiming the mirror was nearly impossible, and the smallest movement from wind moved it substantially. 



On my second attempt, I had a friend model as "photographer" and held the mirror myself. As you can guess from my shabby appearance, I had initially hoped to combine the image with an empty landscape, but I prefer myself in the image.






I swear I'm not this fat in real life. Blame the medium.



Comments

  1. Heydi's PortfolioOctober 23, 2020 at 2:29 PM

    This a great photo. It has a unique arrangement of elements. I think adding yourself to the frame instead of combining the image with the empty landscape works better and adds more to the composition.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alyssa SmartOctober 25, 2020 at 1:43 PM

    Very nice arrangement of the composition.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bo StricklandNovember 9, 2020 at 3:58 PM

    I really really like the first photo, compositionally it's very strong and I love how the light bounces off the guy holding the mirror.

    ReplyDelete

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