It was around the age when my child, who had never spent a day apart from me since birth, first began to assert his individuality. I shot these, mostly of two- and three-year olds, while I too was parenting. Commonly known as the “terrible twos,” every time my son would flex his obstinacy muscle, I would come up against his own, singular individuality, and experience a bit of bewilderment as a parent. I recall one moment when I glimpsed in my own child’s expression, the kind of look that one often encounters in the children portrayed by Yoshitomo Nara, an artist I’ve long admired. It was the kind of glowering look, casting a cool, quite grown-up gaze at me. It was not simply an endearing moment, but a quite thorny one as well.

This series features shots of reflections in the mirror. Children shortly after birth do not yet recognize reflections of their own image. It is not until they are past one and a half years or so that they develop consciousness of their own selves. Then they become transfixed on the image of that other Me in the mirror, stretching and shrinking and infinitely changing in an abstract realm where the line dividing reality and unreality are uncertain, and they seem to enjoy this immensely. It is almost as though they are dissolving into those stories and fables they hear all the time... For them, “Me” is just starting out, so perhaps this is a moment when they can discreetly break out of the daily confines of society, in this world determined by grownups. Perhaps in that brief moment, they glimpse the possibility of changing into that unknown future.

The mystery of life, mysteries of self-existence and the soul, the mystery of the mirror, is it fantasy or is it a reflection of reality? Entering this mysterious realm of the mirror, I sneaked a look at so many “different faces.”