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Contributing Writer Philosophy & the Human Condition

Rashid Noor

Rashid Noor is a writer and essayist whose work spans photography, philosophy, and the study of human restlessness. He has contributed to Light & Composition since 2013. A photograph for Rashid is always a question in disguise — and his Reflections resist easy answers, sitting instead with the productive discomfort that a good question leaves behind.

517 Published Reflections

Reflections by Rashid Noor

Showing 12 of 517 essays
The Weight of Stilled Seconds Photo of the Day
June 10, 2017

The Weight of Stilled Seconds

Why do we build monuments to time, as if we could ever truly capture it? We stack stone and steel into the sky, carving faces into clocks that watch the world hurry by, yet the hands only ever point to a present that has already slipped away. There is a strange arrogance in our architecture, […]
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The Rhythm of the Unseen Photo of the Day
May 31, 2017

The Rhythm of the Unseen

Why do we feel a sudden, inexplicable pull toward the wild, even when we are anchored in the quiet of our own rooms? Perhaps it is because we recognize in the collective movement of others a mirror to our own internal migrations. We spend our lives running toward or away from something, driven by an […]
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The Weight of Harvest Photo of the Day
May 25, 2017

The Weight of Harvest

Why do we feel a sudden, quiet ache when we see the earth’s abundance gathered in one place? Perhaps it is because we are reminded that everything we consume is a fragment of a cycle that began long before we arrived and will continue long after we depart. We live in a world of constant […]
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The Weight of a Breath Photo of the Day
May 6, 2017

The Weight of a Breath

How much of our existence is defined by the things we fail to notice? We walk through the world with heavy footsteps, convinced that significance is found only in the grand, the loud, and the permanent. Yet, there is a quiet architecture to the universe that exists entirely in the margins—in the brief pause of […]
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Where the Wild Things Rest Photo of the Day
April 30, 2017

Where the Wild Things Rest

Why do we feel the need to leave a mark upon the wilderness before we can truly belong to it? We walk through ancient forests, past trees that have witnessed centuries of silence, yet we carry our own furniture with us. We build seats of wood and stone, as if the earth itself were not […]
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The Ghost of the Commute Photo of the Day
April 29, 2017

The Ghost of the Commute

If we were to strip away the architecture of our daily routines, would we find anything solid beneath the surface? We spend our lives moving through corridors of stone and steel, convinced that we are the protagonists of our own steady narratives. Yet, in the rush of the crowd, we become little more than vibrations […]
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The Silence of Buried Things Photo of the Day
April 19, 2017

The Silence of Buried Things

Why do we feel such a profound sense of peace when the world is suddenly erased by a blanket of white? Perhaps it is because we are perpetually haunted by the weight of our own history, the clutter of our daily intentions, and the relentless noise of being known. When the familiar outlines of our […]
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The Weight of Wonder Photo of the Day
April 8, 2017

The Weight of Wonder

Can we ever truly see something new without measuring it against the ghosts of what we already know? We spend our lives building walls of familiarity, categorizing the world into the mundane and the miraculous. Yet, there is a specific, fragile threshold where the unknown enters our orbit—a moment of pure, unburdened curiosity that bypasses […]
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The Alchemy of Memory Photo of the Day
April 5, 2017

The Alchemy of Memory

Why do we seek to preserve the fleeting in a vessel of permanence? We bake, we gather, and we sit at tables to anchor ourselves against the relentless tide of the passing day. There is a quiet desperation in our rituals of nourishment; we consume not just for sustenance, but to taste a memory, to […]
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The Weight of Shared Silence Photo of the Day
February 26, 2017

The Weight of Shared Silence

Why do we feel the need to fill the spaces between us with words, as if silence were a void that threatens to swallow our connection? We often mistake noise for intimacy, believing that if we are not speaking, we are somehow drifting apart. Yet, there is a profound weight to the moments when two […]
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The Weight of Gravity Photo of the Day
February 18, 2017

The Weight of Gravity

Can we ever truly leave the earth, or are we merely negotiating our surrender to it? We spend our lives tethered by invisible strings, walking with a measured caution that suggests we are afraid of what might happen if we let go. Yet, there are moments when the spirit rebels against the heavy pull of […]
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The Weight of a Memory Photo of the Day
February 12, 2017

The Weight of a Memory

Why do we seek to preserve the fleeting in amber? There is a peculiar human impulse to freeze the very things that are meant to vanish—the warmth of a kitchen, the scent of a cooling spice, the soft collapse of something crafted by hand. We treat these moments as if they were anchors, hoping that […]
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