Photographing reflections is a bit like solving a puzzle where all the pieces are made of light. For Urban Sentinel, I had to align myself just so, coaxing the mirrored façade of the Dreischeibenhaus into the curve of a mannequin’s jacket. Move an inch to the left, and the buildings vanished. An inch to the right, and they spilled awkwardly across the shoulder. The trick was finding that perfect spot where the city seemed to inhabit the mannequin—turning it into a silent guardian of glass and steel.

Use of Reflections by Other Photographers

Reflections have a long history in photography. Vivian Maier often used them to merge her subjects with their surroundings, while Saul Leiter layered city life behind streaked windows to create painterly complexity. In my case, the aim was precision rather than abstraction: the towers had to look built in.

It’s a process that involves patience, small shifts in stance, and a lot of squinting. Sometimes you can’t see the final image until you’ve taken the shot and stepped back. But when it works, as it did here, the result feels almost like a double exposure—except every element existed together, in that exact moment, if only for the fraction of a second it took to press the shutter.

Dreischeibenhaus Reflection III

Photograph by Christian Stops ©2025