Photographic Haiku: A New Approach to Creative Photography

After 40 years as a photographer, educator, collector, and developer, Michael Rubin discovered that the idiosyncratic principles that guided his own photography had been articulated before, not in photo courses but in the teachings of the zen arts.

Rubin rejects traditional methods of thinking about photography and teaching composition. Instead, he draws on aesthetic principles from haiku (poetry), ikebana (flower arranging), enso (calligraphy), kintsugi (ceramic repair), origami (paper folding), and bonsai (miniature trees). With these arts as our foundation, we create beautiful, creative, and interesting images that stand alone—more or less the way that modernists approached picture-taking in the 20th century.

There’s an uncanny space in contemporary photography that falls between two extremes. On one side is the fine-art photographic exploration of ideas, perhaps with an eye toward being collected, and on the other is the amateur mindset of snapping lovely photos that people like. This workshop occupies the space in between.

We are not using photography to explore zen. We do just the opposite, discovering how the ideas inherent in the zen arts can help us make better photos and enjoy photography more. Whether novice or expert, using an iPhone or a DSLR, you are invited to take this new approach for growing your photographic skills and vision.