Alice Through the Looking-Glass

This reminds me of the houses of aged relatives, living in tiny Ohio towns, I had to visit when I was a kid. They didn't dress like the woman in the photo, of course, but the wallpapers and ceilings looked the same. This lady has put a mirror (with great upper molding) on a footstool and leaned it against the wall. You can see the chair it goes to in the reflection. I'll bet the mirror was walnut. One of the pictures on the right has a woman with a hairdo that looks like hers. Did the box on the lower right hold the camera?

This is awesome! You can go on flickr today, and find entire groups devoted to self portraits, including taking your own picture in a mirror.

I suppose this was about the only way a photographer could take her own picture back then. I think I would like to have known this woman.

More than her effort to take the picture I am amazed by the shelving full of matted photos. Although in similar vintage images my relations have also had a number of photos on display. I'll hazard to guess that for a photography enthusiast it was an interesting era when photography became "mainstream". It was probably similar to the giddiness I experienced in the early 1980s as I became aware, interested and active in the new field of Personal Computers.