They do it with mirrors

Mirrors are a source of endless fascination. Starting with me in the pre computer generated days of filming where we were told "they do it with mirrors"  to the fairground halls of mirrors and the opportunity to see ourselves as distended, stretched, obese, squat shapes accompanied by shrieks of laughter.

I am beginning to dismantle the mirrors in my house as I get older and more reluctant to view myself but it is interesting to unpick the history of mirrors in a life. Why was a mirror the first joint item purchased in a relationship? Why are reflections so compelling? I am not sure I have the answer but I know that my first art gallery visits brought me headlong into paintings like Jan Van Eyck's Portrait of Giovanni Anolfini and his wife painted in 1434. The picture below which  is an enlarged section from the painting of the mirror behind the couple, with miniature mirrors round it, part of a much bigger picture. Then there was the mirror image from the pencilled sphere in a hand by Dutch artist MC Escher whose paperback book fell apart it was so well thumbed during my teenage years. More distortion here...

What about a move to current times and the world about us. I constantly work on the chance to photograph mirror images in buildings through mirrored windows or in rivers and canals like this Stoke canalscape.

And finally a quirky self portrait using an extendable mirror to pick up my reflection...still not over it then..?