The Stranger

Ever looked in the mirror and felt intimidated by your own reflection? We seem to spend so much of our time wading in our own mind-pool, our thoughts echoing off the inside of our skulls, forever searching for some all-encompassing definition of 'who we are'. We constantly try to seperate in our heads those aspects of our character that we project as our public personality, and those we covet as 'the real me'. Few of us make it through our teenage years without at some point screaming "No-one understands me!" or "You don't know the real me!" or spending ten minutes needlessly convincing your stoned mate that, despite appearances, you are in fact an unbelievably 'deep' person.

Often, our own understanding of ourselves is equally as patchy and subjective as everyone elses, and the 'real' us is significantly more idealistic than the honest truth. So every now and then we have to ask ourselves the uncomfortable question; Whilst we all may roam the rich landscapes of our imaginations as kings and queens, philosophers and romantics, religious role-models and ambitious over-achievers....if you died tomorrow, how much of what you had in your head was ever actually 'real' and not just wasted potential? If who you are is not automatically reflected in your daily actions for all to see, how 'real' are you?

Next time you look in the mirror, and there's no-one else around to impress, ask yourself if the person looking in the mirror, and the person looking back, are actually the same. Next time you're lying in the dark worrying about who you are and where you're going, get up and go somewhere, anywhere, and see if you're there. And next time someone misjudges you, don't waste your time getting vitriolic about what others think you are that you're not...do something that proves what you are. If that's the real you, you'd be doing it anyway.


Self-Portrait.
Photoshop 7.
Textures are from natural image grain rather than brushes.
And unlike most of my photo-manips, this one stands up to scrutiny so please FULL VIEW!