This is a photograph of me

This is a Photograph of Me

It was taken some time ago
At first it seems to be
a smeared
print: blurred lines and grey flecks
blended with the paper;

then, as you scan
it, you can see something in the left-hand corner
a thing that is like a branch: part of a tree
(balsam or spruce) emerging
and, to the right, halfway up
what ought to be a gentle
slope, a small frame house.

In the background there is a lake,
and beyond that, some low hills.

(The photograph was taken
the day after I drowned.

I am in the lake, in the center
of the picture, just under the surface.

It is difficult to say where
precisely, or to say
how large or how small I am:
the effect of water
on light is a distortion.

but if you look long enough
eventually
you will see me.)

Margaret Atwood

-The title may give rise to several interpretations.She wants our attention drawn to the photograph. The fact that she claims that it is her in the photograph, pushing on the fact that she looks very different in reality. The most reasonable interpretation would be that- the general perception or outlook about her was quite different; this was her real self in the photograph. She's trying to say that within every photograph is something you can't see. The photograph wasn't taken of her, 'under the surface', it was of the lake, the surroundings. She's trying to say that sometimes a photographer doesn't see what it's camera does, and that there's always something more within it.