HWhen she took this self-portrait, Heather McAlister was living in a remote California farming community. “We were staying in Tomales, near Point Reyes National Seashore. The landscape is known for its simple farmhouse architecture and green hills lined with windswept cypress trees,” she says. “It’s very quiet.”

She uses self-portraiture to “interpret emotions” and addresses themes of femininity, feminism, motherhood and identity, “while grappling with society’s definitions of beauty in old age. The women in the photo are both me,” she explains. “The images are mirrored, one is faded and ghostly. Both women cover their faces with an allium flower, making their age difficult to determine.”

The house as a backdrop is intentional, says McAlister, because it represents “an American ideal: a wooden frame with symmetrical windows, covered porch and protective fence, all painted uniformly white. I wanted to represent how I present an equally idealized image to the outside world: a caregiver, a housewife, a hostess.” The mirror image represents “the creative aspirations, personal limitations and unspoken truths” that could undermine that.

McAlister says the iPhone apps Slow Shutter and Pro Camera make her iPhone 14 Pro an effective tool for such photographs. This photo is the result of merging two images: the background of the house, which was intentionally shot in black and white, and the self-portrait, which was converted to monochrome and mirrored during editing.

“I hope that others see something of themselves in this image,” says McAlister. “How their desires and feelings might be hidden or masked behind the way they present themselves to society.”