As I continue the process of re-examining the 15-year archive of my negatives, I am not surprised to discover recurring themes among the photographs. Occasionally, one of these emergent themes demands closer consideration. To that end, I am now curating a collection of photographs called Looking Glass. In these images, I peer from the street through ground level windows into buildings (and occasionally vehicles) to glimpse the people inside. Often, my reflection is captured in the glass, and sometimes the inhabitants look back, quizzically and disapprovingly. Over the coming weeks and months, I will enlarge this collection as I unearth old photographs from the archives and take new ones on the street.
The photograph above was shot in Gastown, Vancouver, during the summer of 2018 using a broken Voïgtlander VF 135 point-and-shoot rangefinder loaded with Kodak Portra 400 film. I owned this camera briefly: neither the rangefinder nor the point-and-shoot appeals to my way of shooting, so there was a two-fold reason for letting go of it. While I don’t regret selling the VF 135, I regret the loss of its Zeiss 40 mm f/2.3 Sonnar lens, which is sharp and contrasty—as this photograph beautifully attests. It is a surprisingly good lens for such an inexpensive camera.