"Mirror Me"

TA DA...here it is, my new project! To see a tight edit of the mirror photos I took all over Manhattan last week, simply go to my website at www.patricialaydorsey.com and click on "Mirror Me" in the dropdown menu under Portfolios. I also took mirror pics at my niece's wedding in New Jersey a week ago today, and have been adding to my collection every day since returning home to Detroit last Sunday night. I already have over 100 photos that I like!

The idea for Mirror Me came full-blown on the long drive to NYC on Monday, March 30. I'd been wracking my brain for months trying to come up with an idea for a new project since I knew my Falling Into Place and Active Elders projects--both of which can be seen in part on my website--were winding down. But it wasn't until my friend Pat--who is pictured here in Times Square--said she would be interested in a project that explored why people live where they do, that a lightbulb went off in my head. It was her saying, "Where people choose to live REFLECTS who they are," that set off my creative fire. Thanks, dear Pat, for being my Muse! When we got to New York, I went to a CVS pharmacy, bought a cheap plastic handmirror and I was off and running...

I ADORE THIS PROJECT!!! It lets me approach strangers and engage with them. I've heard such amazing stories. I can do it any place, any time and with any person I choose. How perfect is that??? I plan to stay with this project for many many months, maybe even a year, and at the end? Of course I already see the book!

I wrote a brief introduction describing what happens with this project. Let me quote:

We look into mirrors to see ourselves. But when I give people my mirror, I ask that they look not at themselves but at my face instead. Thus my mirror becomes a way of communicating not with self but with another.

For a social worker-turned-photographer like me, what could be more perfect?