World in My Eyes

This project started from the picture on the left below, which was taken by my wife. In the photo we can see her as well as the surroundings reflected in the astronaut’s helmet. Thus the object being portrayed in the photo is allowing us to see  the world around it, as well as its author. This same idea seems to be explored in Escher’s “Hand with Reflecting Sphere” (below right).

Astronaut

Escher

Using a pair of mirrored sunglasses I decided to explore this idea using my wife as the subject in different settings. Given my wife’s natural shyness towards a camera and the many takes it required, I was forced to use myself as the subject and let her be the photographer. Although the pictures look like an exercise in narcissism with myself as the subject in all of them, this is definitely not the original idea (or at least that’s what I have convinced myself of!). The main difficulty arose from the use of a point-and-shoot camera, since it made keeping the focus difficult. I hope to continue this project and retake some of the pictures that were lost given my camera’s poor performance and the weather’s lack of collaboration (e.g. when I tried to shoot Rio de Janeiro’s Corcovado).

      1. World in My Eyes by Depeche Mode