The Service Road

A Photo Essay

A stroll through a slice of

human- altered landscape
(to the store to buy bananas)

Written & Published

by
Paul's Pictures
Greetings! Thank you for looking at this ebook.
What's it about? We'll get to that in the Introduction,
but before we do, I want to just say a quick word
about copyright and cost.
In short, there is none. In other words, I am offering
this book freely and openly to everyone.
Why?, I hear you asking. Well it's easy really: it's what
I do. I make photos, write and even do other art
occasionally that I enjoy making and sharing with the
world - that's you.
Let's just say it's my way of trying to make a
differenece; my way of contributing to change in our
world.
I hope you enjoy this ebook. Please feel free to share
it as much and with whomever you'd like.
If you would like to comment, or contact me, again,
don't hesitate. My email is:

paulspictures242@gmail.com
To Pauline, my soulmate, my best
friend, the love of all my lives, and my
muse.

Thank you for everything

Credit for the fantastically

appropriate cover image goes
to Pauline too.
Thanks millions
 Tools Discarded

Now, this is the bit where we get into the what's it all
about stuff.
I read somewhere that in sciences such as
Anthropology there is an adage that says the very
presence of an observer changes the thing being
observed.
In other words, whenever a human being enters a
space, environment, or situation, there's going to be
an impact on that space, environment, or situation,
simply because of their presence.
But of course we humans rarely stop and merely
observe: we do other things such as tear down what's there
so we can build something else; we pour concrete
everywhere; and we leave trash.
This goes on in cities and other urban environments, as well
as in those areas we call 'the countryside'.
Even in the wild places: the deserts, jungles, on the ice, and
in the oceans, we don't seem to be able to leave things as
they are.
I travel in a minimilast manner: I don't own a car and always
use public transport or I walk, I live and eat simply, but I still
have to live and eat (like everyone else). Therefore, just like
everyone else, and every other living thing on the planet, I
have an impact.
An aspect of this impact is the need for me to go shopping
for food and other 'necessities'.
On a recent excursion to a supermarket to buy bananas, I
took my camera to record the fifteen-minute walk there
along a service road behind a row of stores and bordering
forest and wetlands.
This book shows I hope an accurate picture of this one
particular slice of human-altered landscape.
I have tried very hard to not make judgements because, as I
said, we are simply one more species having an impact on
our environment. Besides, as you'll see, it's not all bad.
For a more complete explanation of
the 'we're just one more species'
thing, please take a look at the essay
that follows this Introduction.
It's called:

There's no us or them
One of my most fervent desires (in the personal
devolopment department) is to stop seeing the world in
dualistic terms; to not divide the material universe - the
creation if you like - into you and me, them and us,
things I like and things I don't like, nature and
humanity, good and bad.
Of course there are endless multitudes of forms that go
to make up the material world, and as many (actually a
whole lot more when you think about it) names for those
forms.
But I believe there is no separation, there is only one. Or
Self as it is called in the ancient Indian texts.
We can call it the Unity, the One, the Universe, the
Cosmos; whatever we call it, there really is only us. For
me, I've adopted the ancient Vedic term Self - with a big
S and no my, your, or any other prefix added.
Take the nature/humanity duality for example. This is
when we see ourselves (note the joined word: this refers
to humans as we are as material beings in the material
world) as being separate from nature, and think of
'the environment' as a
separate entity distinct from, and even alien to,
humanity. In other words, as a species, as 'society', we
tend to view nature as something other, something to
use, to exploit, and at the same time, we argue about
how to - or even if we should - 'save the environment',
in a manner that reinforces our sense of
'separateness' from nature, a separateness that
doesn't actually exist.
Recently I made a series of photographs recording a
walk from a cabin park where we were staying to a
supermarket (to buy bananas as it happens) with the
view of putting together a photo essay.
The route took me along a service road with large
stores and other businesses on one side, and a forest
and wetland on the other. Cheek by jowl as they say.
The inspiration or seed for this photo essay came
from my thoughts on nonduality. In this case, my
theory is that a forest and a road bulldozed through
it by humans to service stores and other businesses
and to make way for a huge carpark,
are one and the same; they are non different.
I don't mean they are equal in beauty (or any other
characteristics). Nor are they equivalent in form or
function; I say only that they are to be viewed as one,
as a whole.
Think of it like the human body. How we treat one
part of the body will have impacts on how the rest of
the body functions as a whole.
Say we eat a lot of fatty foods. Now, fatty foods are
surely good for the tastebuds and for satisfying
appetites, not to mention filling stomachs.
But consuming too much fatty food will, while still
doing those apparently 'good things', also clog
arteries, damage the heart and other organs, and
help us to collect fat which will be stored in various
places in the body. All of which can and often does,
cause major damage to the whole body.
In the same way I believe that human beings are
simply one more species among millions of others
forming the body of the natural world, each of us
having our impacts on the whole.
So, yes impacts are inevitable, but it is how we
manage those impacts as a species that will
determine their effects on the whole, on the Self. In a
non-dual view of the world, we are not 'connected' to
nature; we aren't 'related' to the natural world; and
it's not humans versus nature either.
We are nature; Nature is us. Remember your
grammar? I am. You are. We are.? In other words ...
well there are no other words. There is only Self.
Sometimes it's even called the I Am.
Okay, back to the eating fatty foods analogy. A little
fatty food may not do any harm, and might even be a
good thing. It's when we over indulge, over consume,
that the trouble starts.
After all, few of us go out of our way to damage our
hearts, or stomachs, or other bits of ourselves.
Why? Because we know that damaging one organ or
some other part of our body impacts on the whole and
might make us ill, or worse. Whereas if we eat well,
exercise, do the right thing by our various bodily bits
and pieces, the whole will then get the respect it
deserves.
Not only that, it will last a lot longer, be easier to use,
and will be happier overall.
And that's what this book is about really. It's about a
journey I made, a short journey when measured in
footsteps, but looking at it from the non-dual
perspective, it might as well have been a trip to
another galaxy.
The photos are a small record of one tiny strip of
human-altered landscape seen, I hope, from a
perspective that acknowledges that all there is, is
one.
No separation, no them or us. In my photos a tree or
shrub is looked at in the same way as a building or
road or a sign. There are no comparisons to be made
in my photos.
These photos simply depict, I hope, how it was, in
that place, at that time, through my eyes and with
the help of my camera.
Now dear friends, this book and these photos and the
experience that brought them into being, are yours.
Every Journey Begins with a Single Step
Not Quite One Thing Or the Other
This Side of the Street
The Other Side of the Street
Where the Street Meets the Forest
Going Against the Flow
The Underworld Route to the River
Delivery Day #1
Delivery Day #2
Looking Out Into the Forest
Please Do Not Enter
When a Tree Falls
Not As Pristine As Once Was
Signs of a Human Presence at the Forest's Edge
And What Gift Shall You Leave
in the Fork of the Tree?
Sometimes it's Better to Avoid
the Bumps in the Road
Life is Full of Twistings & Turnings
Almost There
Thank you for sharing this journey with me. It's my
privilege and Joy to do what I do. This little excursion
took place in a small east coast city in Australia, a
place famous for its beaches, for its holiday resorts,
and lively Pacific Coast lifestyle.
We spent three months there recently and this walk
was a common feature of our stay.
I sincerely hope you've found the experience
enlightening. I know from my own travels that this
little stretch of landscape isn't unique, far from it, in
pretty much any country you can name. I've tried to
show you what I saw and felt.
Thank you again. Please be in touch.

paulspictures242@gmail.com