I Will Love You Until My Dying Day, 2004 (from “Half Empty”)
© Matthew Jordan

For his Half Empty series, Matthew Jordan photographed himself in his apartment, outside of a glass building, in the window of his therapist’s waiting room and various other locations, intentionally including “sufficient context for viewers to immediately recognize that they are looking into a reflective surface.” Not long into looking, you’ll ask yourself how this image is even possible (good luck finding the photographer in the photographs; Matthew removes himself digitally from every image).

Also interesting is the way in which he chooses to display the work:

The prints are face mounted to the most highly reflective Plexiglas. On the surface, onlookers are confronted with a ghosted reflection of themselves. Through this singular reflection the photograph becomes personalized for whomever is looking at it. Taking on the properties of a mirror allows the work to function as both photographic image and reflective object. The viewer simultaneously sees the image and his reflection; this literally embodies the belief that all viewers bring a part of themselves to their experience and estimation of an artwork. Viewers are ultimately asked to contemplate their personal relationships and our cultural relationships to vanity, spirituality and mortality.

For the full experience one must view these photographs in person. But for the time being, take a look at the rest of the images from the series on his website.

UPDATE: I sent Matthew an e-mail to asking him to describe (a bit further) some of his motivations for this work and to address the title of the series. His response follows.

Most people have a complicated relationship to his or her own image. Mirrors and photographs are the two main methods of scrutinizing our images. By making photographs of mirrors, I was hoping to address this complex relationship. I conceived of the images from the Half Empty series as self-portraits. I intended the removal of my person as a gesture of self-effacement. Thus follows the title “Half Empty,” an idiom meaning that one takes a pessimistic view of a situation, circumstance or, in this case, one’s self.

Thanks, Matthew!

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