Background:

I became interested in the term 'wabi-sabi' as a writer of haiku and haibun poetry. On occasion, someone would comment on a poem and mention that it had a feeling of wabi-sabi.

In trying to understand what the term meant to it's originators in Japan, perhaps early poets or practicing Buddhists or Taoists or Zen Monks, I came to realize that, without a lifetime of disciplined practice, a westerner can't obtain a precise understanding of these historical and other-cultural philosophies and practices.

I also found information on a western art movement that has adopted the term as a particular artistic aesthetic, one that has to do with transience, and in particular, the appreciation of objects, natural or human made, that have the touch of age. To that I added my own notion that objects that had a simplicity in form, particularly when found in the chaos of natural settings, might convey a wabi-sabi feeling.

And, given that I and many photographers focus on small objects found in natural settings, and not just on mega-landscapes, I sensed that we too were expressing a sense of wabi-sabi in our work. On these pages, I've presented some of my images.

Poetry and Wabi-Sabi:

I wanted this website to be a mix of poetry and images, that alone or together would exhude a sense of wabi-sabi. Thus I've included examples of prose poetry, free verse poetry, haiku and haibun.

Haiku in English is characterized most typically by two phrases of 17 or fewer syllables presented in three lines. Haibun in English is most typically a mix of prose and haiku. Both forms are western adaptations of the practices of early Japanese masters like Basho, Issa, Buson and Shiki.

Photography and Image Making:

The photographs I've shown here are for the most part digital alterations of the original images. I do this because I think a painterly effect displays the objects I wanted to display on these pages. For the most part, I use photoshop to process my images.

For now, this is the end of the presentation. I hope you've enjoyed it.

~ Ray Rasmussen