There are times when I really notice order. I admit it’s not usually when I’m looking around my house.
It becomes particularly apparent when I’m looking through the camera lens. In a sense I’m always drawn to order even though I don’t always practice it. I like looking at it, I appreciate carefulness and am also drawn to certain repetition and routine. I relish the quiet rhythms of movement in yoga and climbing or cycling and even walking across the earth. I suppose these kinds of order are like a meditation. A way of centreing oneself in an often uncontrollable world. I realize making images is part of this for me. You might be surprised at the number of times I rearrange them on these pages. Thinking about how one image flows to the next or how your eye is drawn through the series.
It makes me think about the sense of order demonstrated by others when I happen across it. Perfectly lined up trees, immaculate summer lawns, thoughtful gardens or carefully placed tools of industry. And then there are natures own brilliant repetitions of shapes, showing up over and over again. There is a comfort in that order.
I like to think I tread lightly on the earth. It may not be so, but when I tread I am always appreciating the natural order that is underfoot, and trying myself to persuade just a little into existence.