START CLOSE IN

I awoke one morning in my mid-forties to realise just how far from home I had travelled. While the experiences along the way were enriching, they weren’t bringing me any closer to what I had been searching for. The more I saw of the expanding world, the more acutely I felt a deepening sense of my own insignificance within it.

Around this time, I discovered the work of Anglo-Irish poet and philosopher David Whyte. Known for blending poetry with philosophy to explore human identity, one of his pieces, CLOSE IN, immediately caught my attention with its profound opening verse:

Start close in,
don’t take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.

As I listened to his live address, I was struck by a unique ability to eloquently connect experiential truths with existential insights. Hearing those words, I sensed a fundamental shifting of perspective from within me. It wasn’t fleeting. It became a powerful lesson in taking the opportunity to practice simplicity, stay grounded, and focus on the immediate, vulnerable realities of my own journey.

Creatively, I began to see differently; my photographic practice quickly became a reflection of this changing view of the world, and my place in it.