Through The Looking Glass
by Gerri McLaughlin
“A tale begun in other days,
When summer suns were glowing
A simple chime that served to time
The rhythm of our rowing
Whose echoes live in memory yet,
Though envious years would say forget”
Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
As a street photographer, I guess I’m a voyeur too, seeking and seeing moments in time of the beautiful ordinary everyday magic of the cities I wander. Sometimes I take the shot, sometimes I don’t, being at times content just to have witnessed some small kindness or expression of love and tenderness in the huge human-ness of a Megalopolis like Tokyo. Many of my shots remain in my memory only and the longer I shoot the streets the more I realise that I am part of the story not apart from it!
As I look through the windows of cafes and other emporiums and see the people there doing whatever it is they’re doing in their own space I sometimes wonder “ am I invading or am I creating a millisecond of intimacy and contact among the vastness of the city”
It’s an ongoing question and one I have yet to answer it’s probable that it changes every time I go out to shoot!
This series has grown over the last couple of visits to Tokyo and that is often the way for me I shoot without too much thought or analysis but in editing I see the themes and them the series come from my subconscious to street level!
Little did I know when I was shooting these shots that I would be the one behind the glass looking out during this pandemic that has put us all truly through the looking glass. Be of good heart and take courage my friends, we know now more than ever that connection is one the most vital elements of all human life…
Gerri
