A study on reflections

originally created:17/01/2023
last updated: 05/11/2023
Update: [5 new pictures!] (Only Season Three from now on! Read about it here.) Added section "Lake mirror" to the bottom of the page.

It all started this night I took a full, 18 o'clock bus and managed to cop a sit next to the window. I was terribly tired, having to run a lot of errands for multiple people all day, and didn't feel like writing or reading, or doing anything at all on the way home; so I just sat back and watched the moving landscape of the city outside the window. I saw lame cars and cool buildings, delivery people and closing shops and that coffee place I always mention; I saw big trees, small trees, tagged walls and supermarkets, and I wanted to photograph all of that, find some cool angles like one would find Wally, and really try and capture the essence of that collective —city— life through my vision and whatnot. But then, just like that, out of nowhere, a question comes to mind: "Are those two fucking?"

At first even I was surprised by that thought, not knowing its origin, why I had thought that thought. But soon I realized that I was actually wondering about this couple standing in the aisle, seeing only the face of the guy with a sassy smile. I was watching their interaction this whole time without even noticing, because the image of them was reflecting on the window I was looking out of. And on that moment, something in my head just snapped. I wasn't only looking out the window when I looked at the window, I was also looking into the bus and at all the drama that could be found there. The couple wasn't the only case in view, a lady in front of me was checking her Instagram, and I could see all the pictures of cute dogs she double tapped to like, and all the pictures of house plants she commented "beautiful" on but never liked; and if I could understand anything I see with my left eye, I could tell if the guy kissing the other one behind me was rubbing his crotch or his thigh. And while all that was happening inside, even more action was happening outside, beause the police was directing a road block in that street, and some guy was slurringly shouting he wasn't drunk while some pigs handcuffed him, and you could see the long line of cars of apprehensive drivers anxiously knocking the tip of their fingers on the car's door, through the window. Action was everywhere, and I wasn't missing a thing because the window gave the perfect view to both scenarios while being a single point in space and time. And that made me think: "how can I explore this?"

Many memories came to mind since then, of my ability as a watcher being enhanced by the environment; of unintentional peep shows, of ridiculous gossip about janes and johns I couldn't care about unless viewed through/from the glass mirror; and I too created scenes in imagination, of artistic expression where this "objective duality" could be witnessed and, therefore, I began also actively seeking in the world around me unpremeditated situations where this phenomenon was in full effect.

In short, I am now fascinated by reflections. The act of apprehending two, three, multiple scenarios when looking at a single, specific point in the environment is nothing short of fantastic, and it looks so cool in photos as well. As of now I have garnered quite the collection of examples, and I'll be happy to show them and tell their stories below in this post, as a category that will probably be often updated, so you can stick around for that if you wish.

The Street Café

This one is quite a doozy, and one that gets better the more you look at it. I snapped it on a rainy night, coming out of a concert way past midnight. It shows the APAE (Association of Parents and Friends of the Exceptional - an organization that gives assitance to special needs people) café and the street in front of it; the sidewalk and its puddly potholes, the shiny wet street, the trees blending with the shadow of the night sky in reflection, the 24h drug store, the one lamppost that seems to be illuminating it all. And aside from that, the droplets of water on the glass too reflecting the light. Truly one of my absolute favorite pictures.

café and the street in front of it in reflection

The Sky-scraper

Pretty interesting one here. The position of this building, being in front of a "short and large" school and in a rich neighborhood (high geographical elevation), the glass front gives a perfect view of the sky. The afternoon I snapped this pic was pretty cloudy, but I managed to get an angle where this single cloud was framed inside a forever blue sky. In the future I hope to have the chance of capturing a clear full moon reflecting on that building as well.

sky reflecting off building glass wall I

sky reflecting off building glass wall II

An abstract reflection

This one is more subjectively/philosophically meaningful rather than objectively. It is one of those that the more you look the better it becomes, but it's hard to explain why it is as good as I think it is. Reflection here is also kind of subjective, because I'm not sure if reflection is the main point of the picture. What I mean is that the high point of it is to show the difference between night and day at the main commercial center of the city, by one having the display of the shoe store, pretty and perfect as you'd see in the light of day, and then the tagged store front as you would see when under mooonlight; sidepoint being the distorting glass they use on the display being used in the picture to distort the tagged store front and show it as some kind of critique or something. It can really go places if you try hard enough, and it looks pretty nice.

shoe store display reflecting tagged store front I

shoe store display reflecting tagged store front II

"A stranger is watching" (get it? like the Mary Higgins Clark book lol) — or, the 3 scenario phenomenon.

This night I was hanging out with the Poet, also known as Cycero (you can check out some of his stuff in the book), talking about our recent literary adventures and whatnot, when I notice this strange advert display on the walking path and decide to snap a few pictures of it. It was only after I got home and checked out the pictures that I noticed how complex they actually were. For one, three different scenarios are presented in the picture: One is the "past scenario", where me (photographer), the poet (dark figure) and the Christmas lights are, being reflected; two is the "present scenario", where the intended element of the picture is at, therefore, the display advert for interior architecture, being looked into; three is the "future scenario", where the other side of the street is at, as well as the car passing by, being looked through, from inside to outside, the display glass. With that you can see how strange it all actually is, even more when you notice the dark figure looming mover, the stranger watching, one so elusive that even in the light you can see only part of. Love this set of pictures.