My Understanding of Photography as Wabi-Sabi

A walk in urban parks and wilderness preserves offers numerous small scenes that I enjoy viewing through the lens of my camera and using for image making.

This website presents images and writing that relates to what I think represents a westernized understanding of wabi-sabi. Just as we in the west have adopted and changed haiku, yoga and tai chi to fit our own sensibilities, I use the term to represent my western-bred appreciation of seemingly insignificant scenes that catch my attention and breath.

Like most people, I enjoy seeing and capturing what might be called mega-landscapes such as standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon and being blessed with a sense of awe at the size, colors and shapes. But my aim here is to display scenes involving natural or human-made objects that one might pass by without notice.

About the Image on the Right

Muir Woods National Monument was named in honor of the writer-poet, John Muir, who was the champion of Yosemite National Park. Located north of San Francisco, just across from the Golden Gate Bridge, this small park contains the remnants of the vast redwood forest that once stretched from the middle California coast right up to the Oregon boundary. Of course, the giant trees bring a sense of awe. And although it's difficult to capture their magesty, many photographers have created mega-landscape images of the redwoods.

When I came upon this well-aged staircase the steps of which were hewn from trees, it brought a special feeling to me. I can't imagine getting nearly the same feeling were this to be a new staircase made of wood or stone . . . at least not until it had aged a hundred years becoming worn by countless footsteps and with the lichens and mosses to have become established.

Muir Woods National Monument, California, USA