Emerging Patterns: Wat Arun

The Catalog and the Pattern

Since the beginning of 2026, I have been on a journey to discover and unearth my past (work stretching all the way back to 2010 and forward to the present day). Slowly, year by year, I have been building what I call a "Definitive" catalog, a curated archive that makes it quick and easy to locate any image whenever I need it. But beyond the organization, something unexpected has been happening. I have been discovering patterns and themes in what I photograph. One that stands out is how consistently, and almost obsessively, I have returned to Wat Arun.

A Muse Across the River

On a photowalk with a friend a couple of months ago, we stood on the far bank of the Chao Phraya river, facing the temple across the water. I remember telling them that I had never found a way to shoot Wat Arun symmetrically, whether the temple itself is not perfectly perpendicular to the riverbank, or whether that is simply a trick of my eye, I still cannot say. Connecting the dots between what I see in my archive and how deeply, if unintentionally, I have been thinking about this subject, I have come to believe that Wat Arun is my muse in Thailand, just as Kaimondake became my muse on my brief visit to the south of Japan.

I am keen to explore this further in the coming years. Now that the theme has surfaced, I may finally be able to approach Wat Arun with fresh eyes, seeking out its different sides and, someday, finding the precise vantage point that yields a perfectly symmetrical photograph of its façade.

The “Definitive” catalog was meant to be a practical tool like a filing system, nothing more. Sixteen years of photographs, and it took a cataloging project to reveal what my eye already knew. I built it to find old photos faster. I didn't expect it to find me.