In this exercise I had to select around 10 pictures from my archive and separate them into two piles, one for mirror and one for window. For the purposes of this exercise, the terms used and interpreted from my perspective; meaning that a mirror for me may well be a window for somebody else.

Mirror

I chose all of these images for the Mirror section as when look at them, they remind of things about myself:

• Children – This image has three of my four children. Whilst this could be a window onto my life, I watch what my children do and so often see and hear myself in the things that they do and say, especially when it is something a little quirky
• Airforce – I was a member of the airforce from 1985 to 1997. Again, although this image would tell others about me, for me, I often reflect on how much of my character was shaped by the RAF; seeing this image reminds me of that in myself.
• Office – This image reminds me of my inner feelings about work, and how sometime I how I would love to escape. In fact, I took this image to represent that for an earlier assignment and so it automatically reminds me of it.
• Caravan – This image reminds me of my childhood and the life I had growing up. My upbringing has shaped my personality so much and this image seems to remind me of everything that has gone between then and now
• Cottage – This image reminds me of how I now like to live away from work. This image was also taken for an earlier assignment and illustrates the contrast with the earlier image Office.
• Men in Family – This image shows all of the male characters in my family. It reminds me of family but it also reminds me that I am seen as the eldest, and the one who has to be wise.

Window

I chose these images for Window as they tell others something about me:

• Pork Pie – simply that anybody who knows me knows that this is probably my favourite food!
• Shadow – Over the past few years, since moving to the Cotswolds, I have found myself more and more at one with nature. This image for me signifies that feeling.
• Sadhana – my wife, who is, of course a huge part of my life
• Toadsmoor – this is a sign in the valley in which I live. Whilst the image does not tell you that explicitly, if the viewer knew that these images were a window to my life, I am sure that they would guess some association.
• Garden Waste – as a window onto my life this felt quite apt, since the cottage where we live seems to generate a never ending amount
• Cottage – this image is in both sets. In the context of a window, the image shows a viewer where I live, and from the Barbican brochure I am reading, maybe they will discern that I am interested in the arts.
• Children – again this image is in both sets. In the context of a window, the image lets the viewer see three of my four children.

Reflection

In choosing where to place the images, I certainly felt the confusion of the multiple ways in which an image can be interpreted. I found that I needed to stop and think what was it that had made me choose the image. Once I had done that, it was clearer to me which category the image should be placed into. When taking future images, I think that this is a useful aide to consider why I might be taking a particular picture.

When putting these images into this page, I felt more self-conscious about the mirror images than the window images. I think that because the mirror images are reminding me of something personal, then it feels like publishing the image is granting a view access to my own personal thoughts. My thoughts are not available to observers and so putting an image on a page and explaining how it says something about those thoughts is an act that creates vulnerabilities. In the case of the window images I have chosen, these all portray information that is available to others in other forms and so whilst a viewer may not previously have known that I had children, for example, this is information that is already in the public domain and so putting the image on the page is not an act that makes me vulnerable.

Some images are in both sets, Children for example. The images are there for different reasons and so I think that it is valid for them to be in both. This reflects the polysemous nature of all images but also serves to illustrate how important it is to understand why an image is being included in a set and to make deliberate choices.

Overall this exercise surprised me. I have read about the topic of windows and mirrors before but having to choose images from an archive and position them makes the concept more subtle than I had thought. I had expected that simple visual cues in an image would suffice to categorise it however this is wrong, the categorisation comes from the meaning intended in the image. If when capturing an image the photographer is intending to position an image into one set or the other, I think considerable thought will be needed to ensure that the meaning, and the categorisation of the image can be interpreted by the viewer.