Maureen Bond

2022 Spring Polaroid Week

In the year 905, Daigo, the 60th Emperor of Japan, selected four poets to contribute to the  Kokin Wakashū, the very first anthology of the waka style of poetry—a style that predates the more familiar haiku. Among the four was 33-year-old Ki no Tsurayuki, the son of a dancing girl.

Tsurayuki wrote waka “has its roots in the human heart and flourishes in the countless leaves of words. Because human beings possess interests of so many kinds, it is in poetry that they give expression to the meditations of their hearts in terms of the sights appearing before their eyes and the sounds coming to their ears. Hearing the warbler sing among the blossoms and the frog in his fresh waters—is there any living being not given to song!

I would argue that instant photography, like waka, has its roots in the human heart. There is a sweetness to it that can give expression to the meditations of the photographer’s heart; a sort of vernal innocence and purity that allows the viewer to look at a still image and somehow hear the warbler among the blossoms.

 

Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, greg fallis and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work