Seeing Double: The Power of Reflections in Street Photography

One of the pleasures of street photography is how ordinary scenes can shift into something unexpected.  Reflections — in windows, puddles, car mirrors, or a pair of sunglasses — are one of the simplest ways to make that happen. 

Reflections flip the world back at you, layering two realities: what’s physically in front of us, and what’s bouncing back at us, and suddenly, an everyday moment feels different. When captured well, reflections can add mystery, humor, or even a dreamlike quality to an image.

Reflections can reward street photographers in a variety of ways. Sometimes it’s the pure wow factor. I was walking through Soho (New York, not London) the day after a rainstorm and spotted a wide puddle.  Sticking to my maxim that one should never let a good puddle go to waste, I crouched down low, placed my camera almost on the water’s surface, and clicked. The result was a scene doubled: street, sky, buildings, all perfectly mirrored. It looked like a portal into another world. The low angle forces the eye into the reflection first, and the symmetry does the rest. Whether you want to call this street photography or urban landscape, I’ll leave it to the purists.

I photographed a scene with a similar aesthetic in Amsterdam. It had rained (of course) and there was a nice puddle in the street.  I put my iPhone down to the level of the puddle, liked what I saw, and then decided to wait for a bicyclist to come down the street.  This is Amsterdam, so it took about ten seconds for that to happen.  I adjusted the color and detail to my liking in post processing, and the result was this memorable street reflection.

Other times, reflections work because they’re clever, often from witty juxtapositions or intentional irony. A shop window might align just right so that the mannequin inside seems to be chatting with a pedestrian outside. Or a bus shelter’s glass can merge an advertisement with the reflection of passersby, turning into a commentary on consumer culture. These moments aren’t staged, but when they happen, they feel the city is in on the joke.

Reflections can bend reality itself: glass on glass, layer upon layer, until you’re no longer sure what in the world you’re seeing. I once took a photo in Manhattan while peering through the window of the Museum of Modern Art’s subterranean bookstore. The shelves, the shoppers, the skyscrapers, and the street all collapsed into one frame, creating a visual puzzle that pulls the eye in several directions at once. Are we looking through glass into the shop, or at the city bouncing back at us — or both at once?

I wasn't on mushrooms, I swear.

Converting the photo to black and white was the finishing touch. Without color to separate the layers, the tones folded into one another, heightening the strangeness. These are the kinds of images that demand a second look – and then a third.

Nervous about sneaking a candid street portrait? Reflections can be your ally, letting you capture faces indirectly, the mirror or window acting as a silent accomplice. My favorite street photographer, Vivian Meier, often turned to reflective surfaces, inserting herself into shop windows, hubcaps, and mirrors, creating “reflection selfies” long before “selfie” was even a word.  I rarely take standard selfies, and even fewer reflection selfies, but when I do, I try to be creative.

Then there are the happy accidents. These are the reflections you could never predict or plan. That’s what happened with a man on a motorbike I photographed in Amsterdam: both of his mirrors happened to catch his face, one in profile, the other almost head-on. Total chance, gone in a second, but that’s what makes it satisfying. Reflections like these remind me that part of street photography is simply being present and ready. The streets do half the work; the rest is simply noticing and reacting quickly.

One of the strengths of a smart phone is the ability to take it out fast and nail that shot. I was on a bicycle behind this guy, with only a few seconds to get this cool double reflection.

For me, the most gratifying reflection photos are those that tell a story. One of my favorites was taken in a picturesque alley in Zanzibar. I noticed a circular motorcycle mirror, and I used it to create a literal frame within a frame, guiding the viewer’s eye right into a narrow alley in Stone Town, where a man dressed in white held a child’s hand as they walked.  In the midst of this activity, the heart of the scene is the father and daughter and their shared intimacy.

Stone Town, Zanzibar, is one of the most photogenic places I've ever visited.

Another favorite in the same spirit was captured on a street in Brooklyn: a father holding his daughter up to a car window so she could see her reflection.

A sweet moment where dad shows his daughter her own reflection in the window.

Two vastly different places, same effect. The reflection didn’t just duplicate the moment, it deepened it. These scenes weren’t mere visual tricks with glass and light. They were about recognition and connection. Fleeting, tender moments like these remind me why I’m out there shooting in the first place.

Reflections don’t require special gear or exotic locations. If you want to sharpen your reflective surface photography, the key is to slow down and recognize potential sources.  Glass windows are the most obvious, but reflective surfaces come in many forms – water, tiles, metal, mirrors, and more. Once you tune in, you realize the streets are full of mirrors, waiting to show you something different.

Here are some approaches that have worked for me when shooting reflections:

• Change your angle. Reflections are all about perspective. Once you see an interesting one, move around. Shift left, step right, crouch low, hold your camera high. Adjusting your vantage point helps fine-tune the composition or remove unwanted elements (more often than not, the unwanted element is my own reflection, a frequent invader of these type of shots). Tiny shifts make big differences. However…

• Don’t overthink it. Reflections are often fleeting. If you suspect you’ve only got a split second, shoot it. You can sort out the composition later.

• Look down after it rains. Puddles are nature’s gift to photographers.  Aim your camera at a puddle and the street becomes a canvas of sky and architecture.  The real secret to striking puddle shots is to get your camera as close to water’s surface as possible. Smartphone are ideal for this. I've put a few more cool examples of this at the end of this blog post.

• Frame both worlds. Try to include both the reflected scene and the surface itself (like a windowpane or the edges of a mirror) to create layers of reality.

• Play with light, color, and contrast. Strong sunlight can make reflections pop. Bright, colorful neon signs become doubly dramatic when bounced off glass. Soft light has its charm, creating subtle, ghostly doubles. Because reflective surfaces can mirror what you’re seeing, striking colors can become vividly striking, while dramatic, high contrast black and white can appear extra cinematic.

This was taken in Stone Town, Zanzibar. This young guy spotted me holding my iPhone down to a puddle and asked what I was doing. I showed him that this is how to get a good reflection photo. I asked him if he could run to the sea wall and jump up and down for the photo. He did, and I got this great shot. He loved it, and asked me if I could send it to him. That tiny moment of cross-cultural exchange was as gratifying as the photo itself.