The Photograph as Haiku

media release: What makes a photo interesting? How do you improve when you’re already good? “Photographic haiku” is a novel approach to exploring photography. About a decade ago Rubin recognized key attributes of the greatest photos in history aligned inexplicably to the rules of haiku. As he studied haiku more deeply, he found that the principles of this poetic form made for something both inspiring and teachable for anyone with a camera.  

Rubin uses examples from his own work in combination with numerous historic works from Adams, Tice, Callahan, Kertesz, Erwitt, Weston, and dozens of others, to illustrate these ideas. His approach also speaks to capturing “the decisive moment,” as Cartier-Bresson described, and offers a platform not only for personal photojournalism and street photography, but for photos of any kind of subject matter.

M. H. Rubin has been a photographer and collector for more than 40 years, a new Santa Fe local after decades in the Bay Area. As a young protégé of Jerry Uelsmann, today he shoots and evangelizes photographic photographic exploration for non-professionals. He is the director of a large collection of classical 20th-century works, always incorporated into his lectures, and has spent the past years developing a new curriculum in photographic education. His book “The Photograph as Haiku” was released in 2023.

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