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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 Hour Before the World Photo of the Day
March 25, 2015

The Hour Before the World

I remember a night in the high country when the air grew so thin it felt like breathing cold water. My friend Elias and I had hiked up until our legs burned, setting up camp on a ridge that seemed to hang off the edge of the map. We didn’t talk much. There is a […]
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The Weight of Granite Photo of the Day
March 18, 2015

The Weight of Granite

I remember sitting on a porch in Mariposa with an old park ranger named Elias. He had spent forty years walking the trails of the high country, and he told me that granite doesn’t just sit there; it waits. He said that if you watch a mountain long enough, you start to feel the frantic […]
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Between Here and There Photo of the Day
March 15, 2015

Between Here and There

I remember sitting on a train pulling out of a station in Rajasthan, watching the platform blur into a smear of ochre and grey. Across the aisle, a young boy pressed his forehead against the glass, his breath fogging the pane as he traced patterns in the condensation. He wasn’t looking at the landscape; he […]
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The Weight of a New Year Photo of the Day
March 15, 2015

The Weight of a New Year

I remember standing on a pier in San Francisco just as the clock struck midnight, the air thick with the smell of salt and burnt sulfur. An old man beside me, wrapped in a wool coat that had seen better decades, didn’t look at the sky. He was watching the water, waiting for the reflection […]
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The Quiet Before the Heat Photo of the Day
March 11, 2015

The Quiet Before the Heat

I remember a morning in the Karoo when the air was so still it felt like the world was holding its breath. I was sitting on the porch of a small guesthouse with a man named Elias, who had spent forty years farming the scrubland nearby. He wasn’t a man of many words, but he […]
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The Sticky Residue of Joy Photo of the Day
March 9, 2015

The Sticky Residue of Joy

I remember a summer in a small coastal town where the heat was so thick it felt like a physical weight on your shoulders. My grandfather would take me to a weathered stall near the harbor, where the ice cream was served in a way that defied all modern convenience. It melted faster than you […]
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The Geometry of Silence Photo of the Day
March 7, 2015

The Geometry of Silence

I remember sitting under the old pier in Brighton with a man named Elias. He was a carpenter by trade, and he spent his afternoons tracing the patterns of the wooden beams above our heads with his eyes. He told me that most people only ever see the surface of things—the waves, the horizon, the […]
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The Weight of Abundance Photo of the Day
March 6, 2015

The Weight of Abundance

I remember a market stall in Marrakech where the oranges were stacked so high they defied gravity, a precarious pyramid of citrus that smelled of dust and sun. An old man sat behind them, peeling a single fruit with a knife that looked older than the shop itself. He didn’t look up when I approached; […]
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The Weight of a Stitch Photo of the Day
February 24, 2015

The Weight of a Stitch

I remember sitting in a small workshop in Fez, watching an old man pull a needle through heavy linen. He didn’t speak much, but he told me that every stitch was a form of breathing. He said that when you commit a word to fabric, you aren’t just decorating a surface; you are anchoring a […]
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The Weight of the Border Photo of the Day
February 12, 2015

The Weight of the Border

I remember sitting in a small tea shop in Leh, listening to a driver named Tenzin talk about the high passes. He told me that up there, where the air is thin enough to make your lungs ache, the rules of the world change. You stop being a person with a name or a history […]
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The Weight of the Wait Photo of the Day
February 9, 2015

The Weight of the Wait

I once spent three days in a hide near the edge of a salt marsh in Norfolk, waiting for a bittern that never showed. My companion, a local guide named Arthur, didn’t seem to mind the silence. He told me that the point of watching wasn’t to possess the bird, but to earn the right […]
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The Weight of the Plateau Photo of the Day
January 28, 2015

The Weight of the Plateau

I remember sitting in a tea house in Leh, watching an old man brush the coat of his pack animal. The wind was howling off the glaciers, rattling the tin roof, but the man moved with a rhythmic, stubborn patience. He didn’t look at the mountains or the tourists huddled by the stove. He looked […]
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