Reflections in a trick mirror

Up close and personal with unsuspecting groomers

Amanda Uren

Nov. 1946

Woman checking her eyelid Credit: Yale Joel/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

For this assignment photographer Yale Joel set up a trick mirror in Times Square Theatre in 1946. It looked like an ordinary mirror to members of the public, but Joel was able to photograph those people through the glass. He captured a section of the New York community at their most informal, attending to items of personal grooming. Adjusting hats, stockings and hair, inspecting zits, teeth and noses.Joel excelled at assignments that involved special effects, unusual equipment and carefully staged situations. His photography was described as "imaginative with a whimsical flair for humor" and he developed a reputation as the "photographer of the impossible." Yale Joel was born in 1919 in the Bronx, New York. His father gave him a Kodak Brownie camera when he was a teenager. He started taking photographs, and continued for the next 70 years. Joel twice won the “Magazine Photographer of the Year” award from the University of Missouri School of Journalism, plus numerous other recognitions.Scroll to the bottom to see what the trick photo booth looked like from the outside.

Man checking a spot on his face Credit: Yale Joel/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Woman applying lipstick Credit: Yale Joel/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Man tying his shoes, with his backside toward trick mirror Credit: Yale Joel/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Woman smoothing her eyebrow Credit: Yale Joel/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Woman moistening her lips, while others are checking out their own profiles Credit: Yale Joel/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Man cleaning his glasses Credit: Yale Joel/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Man adjusting his overcoat and grimacing Credit: Yale Joel/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Man adjusting his pants Credit: Yale Joel/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Nose-blower watching himself Credit: Yale Joel/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Man tugging at shirt collar Credit: Yale Joel/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Woman adjusting her skirt Credit: Yale Joel/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Man checking his molars Credit: Yale Joel/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Woman adjusting flowered hat Credit: Yale Joel/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Man setting his hat in place Credit: Yale Joel/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Man looking closely at the side of his nose Credit: Yale Joel/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Lady fixing her hair in front of the trick mirror Credit: Yale Joel/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images