Online registration for this program has closed. To check availability or if you would like further information, please call 505-983-1400 ext. 111.
COVID-19 Update: For all in-person workshops and trips in 2022, Santa Fe Workshops requires that all participants attending be fully vaccinated (per definition of the CDC) and provide proof of vaccination. This requirement applies to students, staff, and instructors.
Why do we create images, and how do we decide what is worth photographing? How do you improve and challenge yourself when you’re already good? This workshop has answers. And new challenges.
Welcome to “photographic haiku,” an approach to dynamic composition, storytelling, and photographic poetry. About a decade ago Michael Rubin began referring to his photos as “haiku." He was surprised to find that the principles of this poetic form aligned to his own picture aesthetics, and made for something both inspiring and teachable.
In this first-time, in-person workshop, Michael uses examples from his own work in combination with numerous historic prints from Adams, Tice, Callahan, Kertesz, Erwitt, Weston, and dozens of others, drawn from his private collection to further his insights in the create image-making process. Workshop participants have the unique opportunity to be up-close and in-person with many of the finest works in photographic history.
Additionally, the course draws on the creative and aesthetic principles inherent in haiku (poetry), ikebana (flower arranging), enso (calligraphy), kintsugi (ceramic repair), origami (paper folding), and bonsai (miniature trees). Taken together, they are Zen arts and a powerful philosophy that we use to support our photographic growth. This approach also speaks to capturing “the decisive moment,” as Cartier-Bresson described, which we explore throughout.
Daily photo walks and image reviews are used alongside short lectures on these historic prints and classical art forms to build a new foundation. From this new point of departure, participants craft beautiful, creative, and interesting images during their time in Santa Fe, and return home with new insights into the photographic process.
“Haiku photography” is not placid nor pictorial. It moves us beyond still-life photography and into a new way to think about structure and content that is dynamic, challenging, and appropriate for anyone at any skill level. For beginners it’s a better way to learn composition than the rule of thirds. For experienced photographers it’s a way to play and evolve. It’s a new poetic form.
Working knowledge of digital workflow on your laptop computer and manual mode on your digital SLR or mirrorless camera. Participants must be able to download, select, and transfer images to their own jump drive for class each day.
This workshop is not about writing haiku, nor pursuing a meditative state; and we are not using photography to explore Zen. We do just the opposite – discovering how the ideas from the Zen arts can help us make better images, measure our successes, and enjoy and appreciate photography more.
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Participants are responsible for making their own housing arrangements in Santa Fe. On-campus accommodations are not currently available.
Michael Rubin has been a photographer and collector for more than 40 years, newly relocated to Santa Fe after decades in the Bay Area. As a young protégé of Jerry Uelsmann, he began by creating images that were both composed and surreal. Rubin’s work continues to meld the surreal with the intimate; he embraces the passion of the amateur and evangelizes photographic exploration for consumers. He manages a photo collection of thousands of classical works of mid-century modernism, always incorporated into his workshops, and has spent the past years developing this new curriculum in photographic education.
Concurrent with photography, he has had an entrepreneurial career that has spanned industries such as publishing, consumer retail, entertainment media, and technology. Career highlights include Lucasfilm, Netflix, and Adobe. He has had editing and post-production roles on numerous television and movie projects, including the miniseries “Lonesome Dove,” and the Bertolucci feature “The Sheltering Sky.”
Rubin has a degree in neuroscience from Brown University. He is a colorful storyteller and entertaining educator, the author of hundreds of essays, and a dozen books primarily on filmmaking—including a history of Lucasfilm and Pixar “Droidmaker: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution.”
Website: byrubin.com
Medium: neomodern.medium.com
Instagram: @droidmaker
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This workshop is currently full. Use this form to sign up for the waitlist, and SFW will reach out if a seat becomes available.
