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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 the Small Photo of the Day
May 22, 2016

The Weight of the Small

Why do we assume that significance is measured by scale? We spend our lives looking for the grand, the loud, and the monumental, convinced that truth must reside in the things that tower over us. Yet, there is a quiet, persistent defiance in the minute. A single speck of life, navigating a landscape that does […]
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Where Two Paths Become One Photo of the Day
May 5, 2016

Where Two Paths Become One

Can two things ever truly become one, or do they merely learn to share the same space while holding onto their original selves? We spend our lives seeking points of convergence—moments where our stories touch the stories of others, or where our internal chaos meets the stillness of the world. We imagine that merging is […]
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The Weight of Inherited Dust Photo of the Day
May 4, 2016

The Weight of Inherited Dust

How much of a person remains when the hands that once held the world have finally let go? We often mistake legacy for the grand monuments we leave behind, yet the truest markers of a life are rarely found in stone or history books. They are found in the objects that have absorbed the oils […]
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Where the Day Dissolves Photo of the Day
May 4, 2016

Where the Day Dissolves

Why do we feel a sudden, quiet ache when the light begins to fail? It is as if the closing of the day reminds us that we are merely guests in this vast, unfolding story. We spend our hours building monuments of certainty, yet the sky—in its daily surrender to the dark—teaches us that nothing […]
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The Architecture of Sight Photo of the Day
April 24, 2016

The Architecture of Sight

How much of the world do we forfeit when we choose to live behind walls that keep the outside at bay? We often mistake enclosure for safety, believing that by limiting our view, we are preserving the sanctity of our inner lives. Yet, there is a peculiar hunger in the human spirit that only the […]
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The Velocity of Being Photo of the Day
April 19, 2016

The Velocity of Being

Can we ever truly inhabit the present, or are we merely ghosts chasing the echoes of where we have just been? We spend our lives leaning forward, our bodies angled toward a future that dissolves the moment we touch it. There is a peculiar tension in the act of striving—a blur where the self meets […]
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The Weight of Passing Seasons Photo of the Day
April 14, 2016

The Weight of Passing Seasons

Why do we feel a sudden, sharp ache when the leaves begin to turn, as if the earth itself were whispering a secret about our own fragility? We spend our lives bracing for the winter, yet we are rarely prepared for the quiet surrender of the harvest. There is a strange comfort in the way […]
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The Weight of a Gaze Photo of the Day
April 11, 2016

The Weight of a Gaze

How much of the world do we miss simply because we are too large to notice it? We walk through our days with heavy footsteps, convinced that our scale is the only one that matters, oblivious to the complex, miniature empires thriving in the shadows of a leaf or the cracks of a garden wall. […]
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The Weight of Silence Photo of the Day
April 7, 2016

The Weight of Silence

Why do we feel the need to fill every silence with the frantic hum of progress? We treat time as a resource to be mined, a currency to be spent on efficiency, forgetting that the most profound human connections often happen in the gaps between our tasks. There is a quiet dignity in the objects […]
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The Architecture of Silence Photo of the Day
March 28, 2016

The Architecture of Silence

Why do we build monuments that scrape the belly of the clouds, if not to convince ourselves that we are more than dust? We stack stone and steel, reaching upward as if height could grant us a vantage point over our own mortality. There is a strange vanity in our architecture; we want to leave […]
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The Weight of the Unseen Photo of the Day
February 25, 2016

The Weight of the Unseen

Can we ever truly witness the moment when the darkness yields, or are we merely observers of the aftermath? We spend our lives waiting for the clouds to break, convinced that the clarity we seek is a destination rather than a process. Yet, the struggle between the shadow and the glow is where the truth […]
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The Weight of Watching Photo of the Day
February 23, 2016

The Weight of Watching

Why do we feel the need to stand at the edge of the action, rather than within it? There is a quiet gravity to the observer, a stillness that suggests the world is something to be witnessed before it can be understood. We spend our early years in this state of suspension, watching the movements […]
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