The Mirror Shot, Then and Now
As long as there have been reflections, we’ve liked sticking our faces in them, and preferably, immortalizing them in a photo. The selfie is timeless. But I can’t help but think it’s less dignified today than a century ago.
Sometime between when the day he enlisted in 1915 and the day he was killed in 1918, Australian combat aviator Thomas Baker snapped the above photo on the left. His generation knew the menace of world war—ours has iPad photography. Baker’s remembered as one of the war’s star pilots—an ace. But even that aside, at least he left behind something handsome and pleasant to be remembered by. The frosting-faced horror on the right? Not quite. And yet she’ll be the one I see when I close my eyes tonight, screaming, screaming, screaming until I sleep.
