Back Draft: Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Mirrors are simple machines. Our relationship with them, however, is a thing of great complexity. They possess a haunting kind of mastery over us, turning us toward and sometimes against ourselves. They show us who we are, at least until we look away.

A celebrated poet and photographer, Rachel Eliza Griffiths has made a career of exploring how we might see our own image in a different light. In her latest collection, Seeing the Body, Griffiths brings together poetry and photography to powerful effect, providing the reader with an experience that’s both visually and emotionally arresting; the book tells the story of her mother’s death in 2014. When I asked Rachel Eliza why mirrors play such a critical role in this collection, she explained that they present a map not just of “our moods but our genealogy, our lineage.” Looking at herself in the mirror, she always recognizes her mother’s face.

— Ben Purkert for Guernica

Guernica: Is it common for you to revise like this? To cut everything but the end?

: I’m a big fan of radical revisions. Maybe being a