Reflections I

On the most basic level, we see and identify that a reflection exists. It is there.

But examine the reflection and we learn more about our surroundings. It can reveal physical things we can see as well as those we can’t.

Many of my images are of buildings, the reflection of one building in the windows of another; the windows of the art school across the street, reflected in the river below my apartment. One building reflected in another. I ask myself what makes this interesting? Is it a clash of architectural styles? Does an ancient church appear on a glass sheathed sky-scraper? Is it the wild dance of color in the windows that provides a personality to a sheer monolith?

The river beneath my apartment sometimes causes reflections even as it reflects. The windows of the school do likewise. But what caught my attention with the reflection of the school in the water was “plaid.” Since when is a building plaid? Was that intentional when the building was designed or repainted? Should I tell the owners so that they can keep in mind next time they repaint that they are creating a work of art on the river’s surface?

Reflections on the windows of tall buildings conceal also. We see the reflection, not the interior. We think about the reflection, not the interior, not the people in the interior.

We could make a moral judgement that what goes on in an urban skyscraper, behind windows that reflect other buildings and the sky, in meaningless: It is a world of modern, faceless, office drones going about their dull business. But the horrific pictures of people falling from the twin towers on 9/11 belie that. Those were real people – just like us – falling to their deaths. Within the glass sheath, there is a world of meaning for those who are inside.

And a person inside that tall building cannot see the reflection we see, but can actually see what causes the reflection, and can see see his or her own structure reflected in that building.

What is the relationship of the viewer to the reflection and to the reflected? What happens when the reflection is the viewer?