Self-Portrait in Mirror, with Maureen

Is the photographer's girlfriend impressed by his creativity?

Harkness Hall, Brown University, Providence, RI, 1972.

I captured this image during my freshman year in college (1972). I shot it in a mirror with a camera I never quite mastered, the Yashica Mat-124 twin-lens reflex. And my girlfriend, Maureen, grew impatient while I struggled with it.

When I first printed this image, I cropped it so that the mirror’s frame wasn’t visible and to eliminate the white dots that were caused by an error while developing the film roll.

53 years later, I’ve changed my mind about the frame within the frame. Now I see it as foregrounding the image-making process as a construction of reality. And I feel nostalgic about the developing error (more foregrounding!) and the basement darkroom I built in my aunt’s house.

Photo Deets

• Camera - Yashica Mat-124 twin-lens reflex

• Film Stock - Kodak Tri-X film

• Film Type - 120 (2 1/4 x 2 1/4” or 6 x 6 cm)

• ASA - 400

• Focal length - 80 mm

• Shutter speed unknown

• Date of capture - Fall 1972

• Scanned from the original 120 negative, November 19, 2017, at 3200 dpi resolution (5847x5189 pixels—including the sprocket holes)

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© Copyright 1972 Jeremy Butler.

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