The metaphoric use of windows and mirrors in photography has been discussed and debated since its inception in 1938. The photographer’s selection is a fundamental part of the medium: the viewfinder representing the window and the object mirroring the subjective perspective of the photographer.
The windows and mirror analogy is succinctly stated in the Press Release from John Szarkowski’s 1978 Exhibition Mirrors and Windows:
“In metaphorical terms, the photograph is seen either as a mirror – a romantic expression of the photographer’s sensibility as it projects itself on the things and sights of this world; or as a window – through which the exterior world is explored in all its presence & reality.”(1)
Intrinsic in his work is the analogy of this 2-way exchange whereby photography, and more implicitly, the viewfinder is our window, but at the same time, our perspective, mirrors that of our own inherent subjectivity.
The use of these metaphors of windows and mirrors in my own work represents both what I am framing with my own perspective, but also that of how I create narratives regarding how the environment mirrors societal behaviors.
In my own photography of landscape and environment, both analogies are very clearly at play.
Greenland, Photo by Dawna Mueller, 2018
I think these are essential components of a photo and inherent in one’s interpretation of it. We are all viewers looking through our own subjective lens and what we see is the reflection of our social constructs and values.
In contrast to Szarkowski’s more romantic analogy is the stark interpretation of Susan Sontag’s analysis whereby she suggests that photography is synonymous with possession, ownership and objectification.
Sontag states that:
“To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge – and therefore, like power.”(2)
Sontag goes further to suggest that to photograph people is to violate them.
I can see how this analogy can take place, to an extent, in the world of portrait or people photography. A certain sense of voyeurism takes place where the photographer is the only one privy to what is actually captured in the viewfinder. Those being knowingly photographed often express feeling vulnerable and uncomfortable, needing the reassurances of the photographer that they indeed, look fine. This clearly creates an imbalance of power where one is assuaging the concerns of the other.
I am not sure that in my work of photographing landscapes, I experience a sense of ownership, or possession of the image. Or even if I am objectifying it. Clearly there is my subjective perspective in the framing of the composition. The window is created with all of my biases, experiences, preferences and preconceptions. Whereas, what I am photographing is a mirror of what I see, and to a larger extent, what is being reflected back by both the beauty of what I see, and also the destruction of it caused by societal behaviors. It is my intention that the photo tell its story and I often feel as thought I am merely the conduit by which it comes into existence. If there is one common denominator in all of my landscape work, is my desire to make meaning out of that which moves me.
Greenland, Photo by Dawna Mueller, 2018
(1) Szarkowski, John (1978). Press Release for Mirrors and Windows, American Photography since 1960, July 1978, New York: MoMA
(2) Sontag, Susan. (1977) On Photography. New York: Farrar, Staus & Giroux