Percy Bysshe Shelley

Figure 1 – The Mirror. (c) G Sluder 2018.

Reader and renowned microscopist, Kip Sluder, sent me the wonderful image  of Figure 1 yesterday to share with the Hati and Skoll community. Vainly I draw the conclusion that my readers discouraged by my paucity of posts have taken matters into their own hands. First, the artist’s statement

Intuitively the scene appealed at some unspoken level.  The mixed perspectives had mystery to them – perhaps I was Alice contemplating the draw of the world on the other side of the looking glass – but one coming from a looking glass with a tilt incongruent with the order of the building around it.  For me good photographs are often a vessel into which one puts a bit of oneself – the intent of the photographer is of course interesting but not necessarily where the action is.

And I would agree that this is exactly the appeal of the image. The mirror is tilted in a very strange way. It seems to float. It is unclear what exactly holds it in place. It doesn’t quite seem possible that that much grandeur and complexity, a scene worthy of Piranesi, lies just above the stairs. Our eyes dart in all directs trying to make sense of what we see.

And as for Alice – it is worth remembering that the full title is not “Through the Looking-Glass” but rather “Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found there.” The mirror and going through is only the first part of the magic, what is on the other side is the rest.

“In a Wonderland they lie, Dreaming as the days go by, Dreaming as the summers die:
Ever drifting down the stream- Lingering in the golden gleam- Life, what is it but a dream?”

Lewis Carrol, Through the Looking-Glass