50 Times People Were So Surprised With How Perfectly Things Lined Up, They Just Had To Document It

Well, whether it's in architecture or someone's lunch, many enjoy the comfort of a symmetrical image. As long as everything matches up, everything somehow feels right with the world.

In a place full of rush and chaos, it's not surprising we're searching for something still and, well, perfect. After all, even a tower block that once seemed drab and ugly, can, if photographed in the right way, be transformed into a marvel for the eyes.

“Spending time looking at [such images] can be therapeutic,” Dave Mullen, the Sheffield-based founder of the popular Instagram account Geometry Club, said. His inspiration for it came on a holiday in New York.

“I began taking photos of the architecture and found myself looking for patterns and symmetry in it,” he recalled. “Before long, I suddenly had 10 or 15 of these triangular compositions, all shot from the same angle, and I thought: these would look really good together online."

But our fascination with soothing fits isn't something new. There has always been aesthetic delight taken in symmetry.

In the 20th Century, for example, numerous abstract artists adopted it. Like Sol LeWitt and Josef Albers from the US or Robyn Denny from the UK. As did Aleksandr Rodchekno, some of whose photos of Moscow’s buildings after the Revolution wouldn't look out of place on Geometry Club even now.

But long before these four, there were generations of Islamic artists, who thought symmetry reflected the harmony of heaven – and whose work duly aimed to bring artist and viewer closer to God.

Mosques the world over from Mecca to Manchester all bear a homage to the tradition of geometric patterns, with one of the most famous being the stucco and tile work inside the Alhambra palace in Granada.

American scientist Alan Lightman thinks that human brains are actually programmed to see things symmetrically.

“The reason must be partly psychological," he said. "Symmetry represents order, and we crave order in this strange universe we find ourselves in... [It] helps us make sense of the world around us".

"The search for symmetry, and the emotional pleasure we derive when we find it, must help us make sense of the world around us, just as we find satisfaction in the repetition of the seasons and the reliability of friendships," Lightman said.

"Symmetry is also economy. Symmetry is simplicity. Symmetry is elegance." And in the case of perfect fits, it's also a relationship.