I Do Haiku You #2: Oh, The Things We Did

Sean Lotman is interested in the narrative potential of photography. In an ongoing project called I Do Haiku You, he composes haiku and senryu poetry to companion images taken with a Diana F+.

I saw this gentleman waiting outside my friend’s soba restaurant in Kyoto. I was struck by his old-fashioned charms— his bowler hat, askew bow tie, and red riding gloves. In a very real sense I envy the photographers roaming Paris, Berlin, and Vienna during the Belle Epoque, turn-of-the-century Europe. The photo was taken with a Diana f+ and the film was Portra 400VC.

In Sean’s own words, “These varieties of Japanese verse are concerned with physical and human nature, composed in a taut structure as to suggest a moment, much in the way a photograph does. Haiku poetry, like photography, has an instant, strong, fairly emotional resonance. Put together these two art forms enhance each others power so that, very briefly, a story is told.”

Photo and words by Sean Lotman. Originally from Los Angeles, California, Sean now lives in Kyoto, Japan. Read more I Do Haiku You series here.

written by basterda on 2011-10-18 #lifestyle #haiku #sean-lotman #i-do-haiku-you-series