haiku::photo 4 — sono-mama

The Haiku Foundation welcomes you to haiku::photo.

M. H. Rubin says

Can I say I’m enjoying your photos more and more? I’ve long felt that it was the rhythmic beats in haiku that most define haiku as haiku — a strong beat (two lines) and the leap to the last line — that sort of rhythm can also be made in photographs and I think it makes photos much more interesting. Without  them, there is too much tendency in a photo just to show us something, a thing, in a rather documentary way. But with them and the viewer is drawn into the photo, to enjoy the looking and discovering in the image.

It was very hard to pick my favorite few this month — a lot of very nice photography.

And I was stunned just now to learn that the community voting surfaced the SAME THREE PHOTOS I picked — which means to me you all really understand this translation of written haiku poem into a single frame image. Because y’all are seeing pretty much what I’m seeing, I probably don’t need to overstate my critical analysis, but I’ll walk you through my thinking in case it helps novices start to understand what we’re doing.

And for the novices, I want to remind you this is not just me picking my favorite photo — I want the image to have that haiku feeling as well. It’s a unique objective. And while I believe that the thing that makes good photos good is that they seem to have a number of these haiku attributes, that is certainly debatable. But that these are wonderful haiku, well that’s a fact!

So here are my picks:

Beverly Jay, “Rhythm”

This is a beautiful example of haiku photo — you can feel the interesting juxtaposition between the rhythm of the columns and the pile of chairs, it’s subtle, it’s nicely composed. It has a great deal of simplicity and formality and above all, it doesn’t feel set up or fabricated by the photographer, it feels like something noticed.

Jeff Nelson, “Fishing”

I’m not usually drawn to wildlife haiku — they often feel a little exotic, and a little on the nose, as it were. I think what drew me in most was the formality in the birds and the imperfect juxtaposition with the person fishing, in a very organic/authentic way. It keeps it from just being a photo of birds, which we see often, to a slightly more interesting composition and story. Still, formal, simple, authentic . . .

Dan Campbell, “Burden”

This is another beautiful photo, and I’m putting it in my winner’s circle, but I want to point out why it’s an edgy choice for me — it feels right at the edge of fabricated — the fog could be real, but it also could be augmented; the exposure on the lone figure is much darker than other elements which makes it feel post-produced a little heavily. I like this photo, but it feels slightly exotic and slightly manufactured, which nudges a wonderful photograph slightly to the edge of haiku.

When it comes to runners up, there are almost too many to call out, but here’s one.

Peggy Bilbro, “Steps”

I enjoy the rhythmic nature of this shot — a bit enigmatic then totally understandable — I like the formality and simplicity here. And it makes me smile. Maybe the only hang up was it felt a little more object than moment, I wasn’t sure the kigo resonated for me.

How did our voters see it?

Our Next Focus: sono-mama

What we’re looking for: photos of everyday life

I’m so impressed by the past few months of submissions, this coming month I’m going to let you show us what you think are your best haiku photos — haiku as you know can be on any topic, but in photography more than in words, it’s quite difficult to create one at will — it takes time and practice. In some ways it’s a practice more like enso, the beautiful calligraphy done in a single breath, a single stroke. It takes practice to see and capture a haiku in a photo, and unlike their written counterparts the haiku reveals its poetry in the capture, it can’t be suggested as a topic or theme.

So see if you can go out in your days with your camera and notice and capture moments as haiku. A practice. Reveal something true, something of yourself. A haiku is of everyday life, a small moment of beauty found in the ordinary, something that makes you chuckle perhaps, but not set up, just noticed.

I can’t wait!

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— M. H. Rubin

How to participate:

First, view Rubin’s site. Once your feel you have a grasp of the principles, take some photos that align with this month’s theme. Select your best, and submit them below by midnight February 28. Voting runs March 3 – 10. Results, commentary and the new topic will be announced here on troutswirl on March 15. Good luck!

Note: This isn’t haiga! There should be no text attached to your photos. What we are looking for is, precisely, haiku::photo!

Curated by internationally renowned photographer M. H. Rubin, haiku::photo is an opportunity to combine two areas of artistic knowledge. Anyone with a camera can explore the application of haiku principles to the craft of photography., first by viewing Rubin’s site, then by posting their best efforts related to our monthly theme here on the THF site. The result is a visual kukai, and results will be housed in the haiku::photo archive.