haiku::photo 6 — suchness
The Haiku Foundation welcomes you to haiku::photo.
M. H. Rubin says
Hey team, I felt a shift in energy on this month’s photos — like you were digging around maybe, seeing if things you had were spring-time haiku, without the kind of interesting poetic photos we’ve been seeing increasingly each month. Unlike last month, where I felt so many images were wonderful haiku, this month I wasn’t feeling it.
I’d add that the reflection of spring was often too on-the-nose, and I was more drawn to the more nuanced feelings of season and change. Remember, a haiku isn’t really going to have a line “It was springtime!” — its inclusion of kigo is more feeling than explicit. Holds true for the photos as well.
I picked my favorites of the set, but dare I say, as a group, you can push yourselves more. I feel two tied for first, and there were two honorable mentions.
This month’s winners:
Cristina Povero, “the wash”
Even though it has many static attributes, I feel the moment in this still-life. It has a soft kind of formality, but still purposefulness. The rhythms work for me, the laundry and the stone objects, an unexpected pairing, and ultimately, it’s a sweet and still-mysterious scene.
Urszula Marciniak, “Waiting-for-love”
I like this one* a lot — it takes a moment to pull together what you’re seeing — what almost seems a landscape in winter, then the bars crossing it, just enough context to figure it out but not immediately clear. I feel its formality — the edge of too formal without crossing. Not obvious, a funny moment noticed.
* This photo was inadvertently left off the voting ballot, but was still submitted to Rubin for the competition. Our apologies to Urszula and our voters for this mistake.
Honorable mentions:
Valerie Green, “Bluebirds”
This shot leads with simplicity, and I like its composition. The juxtaposition of birds/branches at left is count point to the jet trail in the sky. I like the parallels, and I like the sky not being devoid of texture — it feels natural, noticed, true. It totally feels like a little moment. I think my issue is that I’ve seen this juxtaposition frequently, and I’ve even made some myself. There’s nothing wrong with it, and this is nicely done, but it lacks the uniqueness that characterizes the haiku.
wanda amos. “necklace”
The second shot also leads with simplicity; it’s a nice presentation and the foreground branch is a nice bit of imperfection, casualness, something to counterpoint the web. It’s a little more exotic than most haiku; and It’s a little less mysterious than I like, a little more on-the-nose, and to be honest, I’ve seen this photo before, done lots of different ways over the years, but it doesn’t feel like a personal statement.
Different poems, similar structurally.
How did our voters see it?
amos_wanda_necklace
Newjeer_Jeer_cormorants
Povero_Cristina_the wash
Green_Valerie_Bluebirds
Sommers_Carol_Peak
Our Next Focus: suchness
What we’re looking for: photos without the touch of the exotic
Let’s lean into haiku’s everyday-ness. This month, just have your camera with you and look around at the things around you all the time. Pay a lot of attention to the small vignettes around you: sometimes beautifully lit by the moment itself, something fleeting in your day, and something that quietly reveals something about your daily life. Don’t think exotic, think: slowing down and seeing something sweetly poetic, not over the top, a but a small moment, a smile.
.
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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 April 31. Voting runs May 3 – 10. Results, commentary and the new topic will be announced here on troutswirl on May 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!
haiku::photo SUBMIT
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.
Comments (12)
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please let me know if you have received one photo from me for this 6th round “suchness” so i don’t try resending it
with much appreciation, Dinah
apologies, there may have been a hiccup in sending a photo, in that i got a response of “ thank you we will be in touch” but i had not yet attached a photo
i was trying to do 2 things at once …
I thought you could submit three photos for haiku::photo and to upload them separately. However when I submitted one photo it did not give me an option to submit anymore. Maybe I was supposed to upload all three before pressing the submit button?
hi Wendy, what needs doing is refreshing the page, or come back after an interval and submit the next photo on a separate form , hope this helps
all the best
I’m stumbling a bit over the phrase “don’t think exotic.”
Where I am in Southeast Asia, what surrounds me every day would look exotic to a Western eye—but to the people living it, it’s just life. And if I’m honest, places like Toronto or California feel just as “exotic” to me in their own way.
So maybe that’s the point. Nothing is exotic… or everything is.
I think your assignment is really asking us to stop looking at things as if they’re unusual, and instead just see what’s there—something fleeting, easy to miss.
Thank you for the challenge.
your thoughts on exotic, are spot on
but I was wondering how do we catch ‘fleeting’ on camera,
i know my hands & fingers aren’t fast enough, because i have tried many times in the past
Dear Rubin,
Thank you so much for the appreciation and the beautiful new title for the photo. It’s a great pleasure to receive such a surprise at the beginning of spring.
All the best to everyone,
Urszula
hello Rubin or Kacian
this is a question , I have noticed titles/names are attributed to the photos … are we meant to be suggesting them?
I must say I do appreciate Rubin’s take on how the group is doing as a whole, it makes an interesting read, and leaves me feeling a little like I am back in High School when a teacher asks a question and the answer is not straight forward but an unsaid “what am I thinking” ? most frustrating.
Even though we have been given 5 lines of instruction, we will each interpret it differently and may not come close to what you are thinking.
best regards, Dinah
Totally fair. I respond to images as naturally as I can — but haiku is more genre than form, and I’ve tried to be as clear as I know how about what I’m looking for. The attributes of haiku can often be reflected literally in the creation of an image. It’s no secret. It’s hard to do, and it’s always the assignment.
Anything else I add is just to help focus your control of a specific aspect. I see a lot of ordinary photography — and then sometimes an image feels poetic in a haiku way. I point it out when I see it.
I practice being able to articulate this, and I genuinely appreciate the pushback. Sorry if it landed in an awkward place.
thank you Rubin,
for your response, and I do recognise your efforts in communicating what our challenges are, and it is quite the brainteaser to make it happen
as I write this, there is something about your two choices for week 5 that just clicked in my noggin, hoping to come across “suchness”
thank you for leading these efforts
best regards , Dinah
(and haiku don’t have titles, they are self explanatory).
first … i am well aware haiku don’t have titles
But you have called the two you selected 1st “wash day” and the 2nd “waiting-for-love” ???
while i continue to wait for a reply to my query on April 23, 2026