I’ve heard it said that pilgrimage is a calling and that people walk on pilgrimage for spiritual, emotional, physical, or even artistic reasons.

In 2016, I heard the call and walked the Camino Frances, a 500 mile trek from St. Jean Pied de Port, France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. I wanted to see the land on foot, challenge myself physically and photograph the journey along the Way.

In 2017, I decided to walk the same route again with a somewhat different motivation. I felt experienced and confident and I had no reservation about walking alone. I was hopeful that walking again would allow me to observe the world more deeply, document my experience and try to uncover personal truth.

Again I traveled to St. Jean Pied de Port. My itinerary was the same as it had been in 2016; each day’s journey beginning and ending in the same town. I began to wonder, since I was walking the same route, if what stopped me to take a photograph in 2016 would again stop me in 2017 and how similar or different the daily photos would be. Could two photos from the same location alter my view of the journey, itself?

Below is a video compilation of photos alternating daily from each year with accompanying music and also a haiku to illustrate that at each journey’s end, the inward journey begins. It is in the remembering that the true gift of pilgrimage is revealed. It is not a destination reached, but the self we come back to.

Video music credit: Matt Simons/Catch and Release