It has occurred to me that mirrors and photographs of a person can be a curse. Why? Well, it seems to me that it is not natural for a person to see himself/herself from the ‘outside’. We see ourselves better and more ‘truly’ either from the ‘inside’ – or reflected in the faces and reactions of others to us. Other people, our friends and family, are the best mirrors. To see yourself in a mirror is to see yourself as an object – to split from yourself – to encourage yourself to be both subject and critic… And I believe that the healthy place for us to be is ‘in’ ourselves, looking out at the world…

Consider how alienating it is to see yourself in a mirror. If you are feeling happy with yourself, looking in a mirror can only serve to either undermine your sense of yourself, or else to promote a vanity that makes you become a caricature of yourself… that makes you behave as if you are wearing a mask…

Photos of us only serve to fix, without possibility of change, an impression of ourselves that is always going to be false. Even if – and this is rare – it captures a ‘good’ impression of us, it does so lifelessly. It can easily become a replacement for living memory – and a source of reproach for how we are getting fat, losing our hair, ageing – what benefit is that?

I went to a 25 year reunion where everyone responded with delight at seeing long lost friends. Joyfully we all were convinced that no-one had changed – been damaged by time. Of course, in any sense that is of value, this was true. However, someone brought out a photograph taken 25 years ago. And suddenly we were confronted with how we had looked – and these people seemed like children. The joy in the room was tainted by melancholy. What benefit did that photograph bring…?

I wonder if, perhaps, the injunction in Islam (and in stricter Judaism) against making representations of people (and animals) – that is always rather crudely interpreted as a fear of idols – of the Golden Calf – may be in fact the wisdom that such images (of which I would claim mirrors and, certainly, photographs examples) cause unhappiness…