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Contributing Writer Storytelling & Travel Writing

Tom Bretherton

Tom Bretherton has spent the better part of two decades travelling, and the better part of that time paying attention. He has contributed to Light & Composition since 2014 with a writer's instinct for the particular — the name of a town, the timing of a conversation, the kind of detail that makes a story feel true. His Reflections are brief narratives that arrive at something universal by way of somewhere very specific.

621 Published Reflections

Reflections by Tom Bretherton

Showing 12 of 621 essays
The Quiet After the Rush Photo of the Day
November 27, 2018

The Quiet After the Rush

I remember walking through the backstreets of Istanbul just as the call to prayer began. The markets had been a riot of shouting merchants and clattering carts only an hour before, but in the sudden lull, the city felt like a held breath. I found a small, ginger cat sitting perfectly still on a pile […]
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The Weight of a Smile Photo of the Day
November 26, 2018

The Weight of a Smile

I met a man named Elias in a small port town in Greece who spent his mornings untangling fishing nets that looked like they had been through a war. His hands were mapped with deep, salt-crusted lines, and he moved with a slow, deliberate rhythm that made the rest of the world feel frantic. I […]
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The Architecture of Joy Photo of the Day
November 24, 2018

The Architecture of Joy

I remember a summer in a small village outside of Lucca where the local boys played football with a bundle of rags tied together with twine. They didn’t have a pitch, or jerseys, or even a proper ball, but they had a set of rules they’d invented that seemed more complex than anything in a […]
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Chasing the Wind Photo of the Day
November 23, 2018

Chasing the Wind

I remember sitting on a rusted bench in a small station in Rajasthan, watching a group of boys sprint across the tracks. They weren’t running for a train; they were chasing a scrap of paper caught in a thermal, their eyes fixed entirely on the sky. There is a specific kind of hunger in that […]
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The Weight of Seconds Photo of the Day
November 19, 2018

The Weight of Seconds

I remember sitting in a train station in Zurich, watching a man in a grey coat adjust his pocket watch against the massive station clock. He did it with such reverence, as if the mechanical pulse of the city depended entirely on his tiny, brass-cased instrument. We spend our lives trying to measure time, carving […]
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The Weight of Sunday Lunch Photo of the Day
November 11, 2018

The Weight of Sunday Lunch

My grandmother used to say that the best meals were never the ones that took all day to prepare, but the ones that felt like they had been waiting for you. I remember sitting in her kitchen in late July, the air thick with the smell of crushed herbs and warm bread. She didn’t believe […]
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The Weight of a Glare Photo of the Day
November 9, 2018

The Weight of a Glare

I remember a boy in a dusty alleyway in Marrakech who looked at me with such fierce, unblinking intensity that I instinctively checked my pockets, wondering what I had taken from him. He wasn’t holding a toy or a coin; he was holding a grudge against the very idea of being watched. We spend so […]
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The Weight of a Whisper Photo of the Day
November 5, 2018

The Weight of a Whisper

I remember sitting in a dusty courtyard in Marrakech, watching two boys argue over a marble. They weren’t fighting about the value of the glass, but about the rules of a game that only they understood. It was a fierce, silent intensity. We spend so much of our adult lives trying to expand our horizons, […]
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The Weight of a Run Photo of the Day
November 4, 2018

The Weight of a Run

I remember a dusty afternoon in a village outside of Jaipur where the air felt thick enough to hold onto. A group of boys were chasing a hoop made of rusted wire, their laughter cutting through the heat like a sharp blade. One of them tripped, his knees hitting the dry earth with a dull […]
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The Echo of the Clock Photo of the Day
November 1, 2018

The Echo of the Clock

I remember sitting in a café in Singapore, watching the humidity cling to the glass while the afternoon rain turned the streets into mirrors. An elderly man sat at the table next to me, meticulously winding a pocket watch that had long since stopped ticking. He told me he didn’t care if it kept time; […]
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The Weight of a Fence Photo of the Day
October 21, 2018

The Weight of a Fence

I remember a boy named Elias who used to spend his afternoons in the alley behind our apartment block. He wasn’t playing, not really. He was just testing the height of the brick walls, seeing how far he could stretch his small frame before gravity pulled him back to the pavement. There is a specific […]
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The Art of Passing Through Photo of the Day
October 10, 2018

The Art of Passing Through

I remember sitting on a wooden bench at a train station in Leeds, watching the commuters blur into a single, grey tide. There was a woman in a bright yellow coat who stopped for a heartbeat to check her watch, then vanished into the crowd as if she had never been there at all. We […]
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