Mirrors

A mirror, like  a picture itself, reflects "reality". Due to its respective qualities, it either depicts, magnifies an object or makes it smaller, sometimes it even evokes infinity. Just like the objective of a camera, a mirror delimits excerpts from a variety of pictures either through its outline or with its frame and cuts them. Depending on its position, it either tilts them or puts them at an angle. From the early days, there was a certain preference to use reflecting water surfaces and reflecting surfaces of other suitable materials in still lives due to their intensified expression and the transmission of material qualities and refraction. With the help of reflections several messages could be sent at the same time. A reflection informs us about the source and the intensity of light, the surroundings of an object and about visual impressions that are situated farther away.

The photo is a courtesy of my friend and blog contributor Anastasia

By depicting reality the artist takes stock of what he considers worth communicating. In the mirror, too, a depiction varies due to the "setting", for even a selection of excerpts provides an interpretation of the overall picture. You can see yourself in the mirror, but you can also steer for parts of the environment or for other people. Depending on how you hold the mirror, you can even see yourself upside down, with your feet on the ceiling. Because of this, you realize familiar things more intensely or even as completely new. Surfaces curved by mirror tiles take a picture apart (also by shifting the edges), broken pieces of mirror tiles make it undone.

The mirror belongs to man as the most important attribute of his surroundings, because it is used as a mean of self-control and to check on everyday life. Man likes depicting himself in pictures and when he is looking at himself. This enhances his status as a person and is a proof of his "handsome appearance" and that he accepts himself. It also shows that he wants to come to terms with his personality or that he has already completed his development. Visions and mirror images may prompt new ways of looking at things.