I enjoy composing my photos using reflections, as they create layers by merging scenes that are typically seen as separate. In this case, the trees outside blend with the train’s interior, reminding me that things in the world remain connected, even when they don’t physically touch. This dynamic becomes even more apparent in street photography, where scenes emerge spontaneously and unpredictably, in contrast to the controlled environment of a studio.

As Jean-Luc Nancy (2017) argues, the origin of the world is not a distant event but something that happens continuously, everywhere, and repeatedly, in every singular act of any being. The world is not a static or fixed entity; it is in a state of “ongoing genesis” (Emanuele Coccia, 2016), constantly emerging in the present. The world is a plural process, always composed of multiple worlds, an incessant flow of phenomena. And this process is shared. In this sense, we are not simply “Being-in-the-world” but rather “Being-to-the-world.” Everything that exists does not present itself as raw data. For Nancy, the meaning of being arises precisely from this co-existence, from the circulation between beings, and not from a fixed essence or independent existence. The world, whether in the countryside or in cities, does not preexist relation but is produced in and through the co-existence of multiple beings—material and immaterial, human and non-human alike.

Street Photography. No double exposure.

References

Coccia, E. (2016). La vie des plantes: Une métaphysique du mélange. Payot & Rivages.

Nancy, J.-L. (2006). Ser Singular Plural. Madrid: Arena Libros.

© Ana Cichowicz