Slow Photography #38 Haiku

Haiku. In our global information age, haiku is poetry for any size screen.

Successful haiku photography joins images and poetry with a lyrical, mindful union. Words and pictures together are more powerful than either alone. Like photography, haiku is based on a keen awareness of the present.

Nature photographers explore haiku to capture beautiful wild moments. Street photographers also practice haiku photography, at home with the art on today's social media. Instagram is a ideal gallery to share haiku photography.

Whereever your interest lies, it is easy to create a photo haiku in Photoshop. First, for those new to haiku, let's explore what it is.

HAIKU PAST: THE SEASON

Traditionally, haiku is about nature and our oneness with its winds, seas and sensations. Sometimes serious, often comic – haiku was a short non-rhyming poem. The poem was written in a single vertical line on the page. Haiku poems often referenced the seasons.

Long called the “wordless poem,” haiku was a way of life. It was associated with spiritual practice. Poets and common folk alike wrote haiku to praise, describe, and to open the heart and mind. The Japanese samurai Basho (1644-1694) is arguable the best known haiku poet, and devoted his spiritual life to haiku poetry.

HAIKU PRESENT: SHORT, WITTY

Since Basho’s time, Western writers have enlarged haiku’s structure and content.

Jack Kerouc wrote haiku. Richard Wright, African-American author of Native Son, also wrote a series of haiku. With this poem, we see the wit of poet George Swede:

Thick fog lift's
unfortunately, I am where
I thought I was

IMAGINE HAIKU

How do you make photo haiku? Begin by observing a passing moment, like a lightning bolt or a moment of human relations. Starting with an image, think about what you perceived, heard, saw, or sensed during your experience.

Your short poem does not have to be about what happened. The best haiku combine a scene and the poets response to it or to what was imagined. Simple language conveys the poems meaning more clearly. Let the phrases offer viewers a fresh point of view.

On a morning walk,  I saw this dog in his owner’s arms inside their limousine. He seemed like he was being cajoled by his masters to take a limousine ride even though he did not want to go. From the dogs’ perspective, a poem emerged.

HAIKU STRUCTURE

Notice that the limo dog haiku departs from haiku rules we learned as kids: write using 5 syllables on the first line, then 7, then 5 syllables again. Why? Haiku does not need to use a tight 3-line structure of exactly 17 syllables. Originally, Western haiku translators misunderstood the Japanese meaning. " Sound/symbol " was falsely translated to mean "syllable" when Japanese haiku was translated to English. However, sound symbols are not equal to English syllables, and 10 to 14 English syllables, not 17, more closely matches the length of the haiku poem (Cor Van Den Heuvel, 1999).

Modern haiku can be one, two or three lines; what counts in understanding haiku photography is keen insight into a significant moment. Creating haiku photography means taking the viewer into the full import of an experience, not writing fancy poetry.

To paraphrase the poet John Keats: poetry should be great and unobtrusive, a thing which enters into one’s soul, and does not startle or amaze it with itself, but with its subject.

A NEW SOCIAL HAIKU

Instagram, Twitter and social media abound with photo haiku. These forms take digital photography immediately, pixels can be enhanced in the phone on locations, and this immediacy joins short haiku poems while the image is fresh in memory.

The web is a global consciousness, and it offers the art of tag-team haiku photography. The first person uploads a photograph and their team mate posts an accompanying haiku.

Abe Museki, called the father of the photo-haiku genre, writes:

“photo-haiku has succeeded in the Internet world because photography matches haiku so well. ”

Since a digital image can be easily changed, this flexibility makes photos blend into the meaning of short haiku poems. For instance, for the picture of an orangutan at Colorado’s Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, wiping a tear from her eye, I shifted the colors of the digital image so they matched its moody blues. 

A fun question emerges when we compost photo: "Does my poem let me see the photo in a way I’ve never seen it before?" OK, now lets look at how to make a photo haiku.

PHOTO HAIKU IN PHOTOSHOP

START  STEP 1: Open your photograph using File > Open.

2: Before adding text, increase the Canvas Size under Image > Canvas Size and add 300 pixels to the width. If your picture was 1200 pixels wide, increase the Canvas Size Width to 1500.

3: Likewise, add 400 pixels to the height. Note that you can customize the canvas  color by clicking Canvas Extension Color at the bottom of the Canvas Size dialog box.

4: Click the Text Tool (T)  in Photoshop’s toolbox. Select your font style from the upper toolbar. Type in the text of your poem. Control Enter will move your text to the next line. Click Photoshops check mark to commit your edits. To view your text layer, open the Layers palette by clicking Window > Layers ( F7 ).

5: Position your poem by using the move tool in the toolbox. It is at the top of the single column toolbox, or top right of a double column toolbox. Take a look at your Layer's Palette. You should have two layers.

STEP 6 FINISH: With your text on one layer and a picture on a second layer, save the file as a .PSD. This lets you edit the poem independently of the picture, later on. For instance, you may wish to change the color scheme, and this is easier with a .PSD file.

A GROWING ART FORM

Haiku photography, then, is a thriving art form in the information age. The rapid growth of digital imaging will support new forms of haiku with fresh possibilities. As a throng of young artists publish their diverse work on the web, haiku photography will continue to grow.

LINKS

JAPANESE  Find Shoji and other poets at Haiku Poets Hut (www.haikupoetshut.com/haikuphotndx.html ).

MARK BROOKS  A site devoted to haiku is http://raysweb.net/fall-haiku/pages/011.html where you can enjoy the vision of Mark Brooks, and Photohaikuarts. com, Roderick Stewart’s gallery.

RON and GABRIEL ROSENSTOCK  Ron Rosenstock’s excellent large format black and white imagery is joined with Gabriel Rosenstock’s haiku, and may other haiku related subjects. Google: World Haiku Review.          

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