Inner Outer Reflections

Light, Shadow & Reflection.

I often write about light. Strong light, soft light, and the warm, golden light of late afternoon. I love how light changes throughout the day, evolving moment-by-moment, modified by the sun’s position, humidity, clouds, and latitude. Light, in all it’s infinite forms — daylight and night light — a gift to be enjoyed and appreciated.

Can you love light without loving shadow too? No, because they are inextricably joined as two elements of one compound. Light and shadow are yin and yang, complementary opposites locked in eternal embrace, giving to and taking from each other. Each defines and articulates the other; each cannot exist without the other.

Photographers are sometimes called those who “chase the light.” It’s a fitting and accurate way to describe the art and science of photography, which is all about capturing light and its shadowy counterparts on film emulsion or digital sensors. As a photographer, I love the visible light and places where there is little or none of it. Which leads me to the point of this post:

How light and shadow change reflections

When you stand inside a well-lit room at night and look outside, all you can see is a reflection of what’s inside the room. And if you stand outside at night looking into that same well-lit room, you can see clearly what’s inside, but nothing of what is outside.

But it’s all different in daytime, when the dynamic differences and contrasts between interior and exterior spaces are diminished. Looking through a pane of glass during the day, variations in light and shadow, inside and outside, create multi-layered views, unexpected compositions, and juxtapositions! Interior and exterior things, depending on their lighting and shading, are visible together, co-existing on the same plane for a moment…