I was looking through the most recent photographs on my phone and noticed a recurring theme: the world outside viewed from inside, often framed by an open window. I am indoors but I am looking outside, turning my photographic gaze outward.

There are many versions of this type of photograph in my collection. The most common has me in a dark room with the lights out, the brighter scene outside floating in the black frame of the window.

Or the quality of light (usually golden) seeping in through the window is such that I feel the need to capture the surfaces which have been transformed by it. The light effects a wondrous change which begs to be both savored and recorded.

Or something about the contrast created between the boundary of light and dark, the weight and beauty of the shadowy in-between.

Or something about straining towards the light in the midst of turbulence and uncertainty. And now the metaphors fall away and I remember again how grateful I am for photography, a rich practice of attention. I am grateful for a practice which helps me to appreciate both the light and the shadows, which challenges me to linger just a while longer, hopeful that the darkness is never really completely dark.

-Eyes wide open, Chinwe