Sinister: They (Didn't) Do It With Mirrors

[Will Salt]

This is my first post after leaving the nursary, which explains why
none of you know who I am.

I know all the talk on "how did they do that cover image" relating to
FYC... has died now, but I still wanted to weigh in with my own
opinion on the subject, because, several years ago, I tried taking a
similar series of pictures myself.  Studying for a GCSE in
photography, I was assigned the subject "Distortion" for a picture
series, and had the (presumably unoriginal) idea of photographing
someone looking in the mirror, with somebody else's face looking out.

I set up some white backgrounds (actually, a spare display board and
the wall of a corridor), hung a mirror on the wall, and found a
chair.  After a bit of adjustment so that I could see model's face
directly (from the side) and in the mirror (full-frontal), without
seeing any nasty shadows, or myself or the camera in the mirror, I
rounded up everyone in my photography class, plus anyone who walked
past (several art teachers and a bewildered First-Year Kid), sat them
down in front of the mirror and took their picture.

Afterwards, I printed the best pictures (being careful to give them
all the same enlargement), then carefully cut out the mirror from some
of them. I set up a DIY repro-stand by dismantling my tripod and
reassembling it upside-down, then carefully placed the cut-out mirrors 
over the complete photographs before taking a copy photo.  On the
resulting print, there was no trace of any alteration.  It took a bit
longer than it probably would today with Photoshop -- about an hour
for the shoot, then four or five in the dark room -- but messing
around with chemicals was far more satisfying.  I was very
disappointed, though, by the reaction I got.  "It's a trick angle,"
everyone said, "the man in the mirror is behind the camera." Unhappy,
I never finished the project and only printed one of the final
"composite" pictures.

Anyway, having said all that, I'd like to point out that it's easy to
prove that the FYC... cover was done with two different people, rather 
than with a mirror and tricky editing.  I don't think anybody pointed
this out:  the shadows give it away.  From the visible shadows, both
figures are lit by two lamps, both from the bottom right.  If a mirror
were there, the reflected figure would appear to be lit from the other
direction.   In addition, the shadow of the real-world book could not
fall on the mirror-world person if this person was just a reflection.
I also think that real-world book is too far to the left, and would
hit the mirror, but that's a bit hard to judge.

Of course, the paranoid might like to speculate that the shadows were
deliberately painted in afterwards.  Note that if you magnify the
mirror-world girl's left eye, the resulting image also proves that the 
moon landings were faked :-)

Anyway, as this is a delurk, here's some incidental information about
myself.  Name: Will.  Age: 22.  Living in: Edinburgh.  I lurked on
sinister for about a year, back in 1997 (in the days of its ed.ac.uk
address), but unsubscribed as I was going away on a field trip.  I
never rejoined, until the other week. Occupation: student of
archaeology (my degree result is released next week). Likes: staying
in bed.  Doesn't like: having to get out of bed.

Which reminds me: I Fought In A War (no, not *me*).  The line "beyond
the bedsit infamy of the decade gone before" reminded me of the review 
of IYFS printed in the Guardian newspaper, which (IIRC) said that they 
sounded as if they hardly ever left their bedsit (or words to that
effect).  I remembered it, because that was the first time I heard
about B+S.  Can't help wondering if it's deliberate or coincidental.

Ta-taa,
Will S
-- 


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