What started as a passing observation compiled into so many instances, it’s hard to say it’s an intentional choice or Kubrick’s natural aesthetic in composition.
It’s a visual/compositional effect that I believe is how the film can be played forward and backward and it lines up. It lines up because the man is a photographer first and a filmmaker second.
In this image · No.30
Parallel and Perpendicular Arrangements
The Maze reading concerns the mind’s ability to combine spaces that look similar without being exactly the same. No.24 and No.38 demonstrate this through parallel and perpendicular arrangements. In Image 490, the coffee vending machine faces the viewer while the water cooler is perpendicular. In Image 670, the vending machine is perpendicular and the water cooler faces the viewer.