Reflections on Reflections

Amsterdam Reflections
 

What is reality? Is it a series of perceptions? Sight, touch, smell (taste) and sound are all the means we humans have to judge what is real. Although we can be deceived, of course, by digitally altered images, lenticular clouds that may look like UFOs, impossible burgers that taste like the real thing…but those are still real things even if we miss-perceive them.

Consider reflections. Are they real? Or do they just represent other things. A photograph of a person on photo paper is obviously not the actual person but the paper is real. But what about a reflection? A reflection has no substance whatsoever. We can see it, but we can’t touch, smell it or hear it. Does something have to be perceived in more than one sense category to be real? Or is it just a mirror of reality?

Metal Diner Reflection 25 062422



I’ve always wondered what I really look like. Consider that in our lifetime, unless someone makes a life mask of us, we never, ever see our face in three dimensions. We see ourselves in photographs, on video or in a mirror. When I’m looking at myself in the mirror, is that me?

I know intellectually that image is not what everyone else sees unless they are standing beside me and looking in the mirror as well. The mirror is real, I can touch it. But what about my reflection?

Am I real?

Sun Angel




Retaining Wall Reflection 1



For more of my images, please visit:

https://mary-bedy.pixels.com/

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