Mirror Mirror – Emma Sailah

Mirror Mirror is a voyeuristic study of identity and our nature as spectators. It explores themes of self and personal identity and the human condition.

Shot over five days at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, the work involved 51 participants who sat in complete isolation in front of a one-way mirror for thirty minutes while the photographer shot their changing expressions from behind the glass.

Each subject, while fully aware of the unseen camera, could see only their reflected image in front them, allowing the work to explore their reactions to solitude, silence and surveillance.

What do we reveal to others? And what do we conceal? Mirror Mirror forced participants to be exhibitionist and spectator at the same time.