Photographer : Herman Cater
This photo shares the power of memory and brings the past memories to life as we live reality today. The man is looking through a mirror at himself and at his wedding picture of him and his wife when they were younger. He has a face of sorrow, regret, and a feeling of failure as he is now alone looking at himself and remembering the good times by looking at a small photo.There is nothing else showing through the mirror and therefore he has no other memories that would give him a smile on his face. The only memory gives him a feeling of distress and failure because he is alone and has ended up with nothing in his hands.
The figure in this photo is the man, and more specifically, his troublesome and sad eyes. The eyes are as if they are looking at you but they are actually looking at the picture on the wall with a feeling of grief. One could see the picture on the wall and the direction of the eyes and feel deceived because it is unclear whether the man is looking at the viewer or the picture.
This picture also has some symbolism connecting the past with the present by showing the man today as an older less fortunate man and the same man when he was younger with his wife on his wedding day. It symbolizes the connection between the past and the present and how we can escape neither the past nor the present no matter how hard one may be.
Proximity is evident through the use of two eras in one photo. The man today is related to the man in the wedding picture however they are not related in how they feel at the moment. The man in the picture was not alone but the man today is alone and has a very depressed look. The man in the picture is in a tuxedo and dressed nicely with a woman next to him who is also dressed nicely, but the man today is dressed in rags and not in a good shape.
The colors used in this picture depict the deep gloominess this man is in at the moment. One could see that in the man of today, however, in the man of yesterday, the one in the wedding picture, one could see a brighter white than the rest of the picture. In the Middle Eastern culture, the darker colors, especially black and gray are used for sad and depressing moments.
The framing used in the original photo and the wedding photo are different. The wedding photo has a real frame with some style to it to match the occasion. That shows that probably, at the time, the couples were well off and were happy and comfortable with each other and with their lives. This is of the past. However, the present photo of the man looking at himself through the mirror shows the opposite lifestyle. The mirror looks like it is a makeshift mirror and not of the kind that would show the whole picture very clearly. It is important to realize that difference between the present man and the one from the past. The mirror is a (frame) and a window into the past and the frame to the photo in the present.
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