A Year of Haikus: Reflections on 52 Frames
Seven years ago, I stumbled upon an online photography project called 52 Frames. It seemed perfect—something that would compel me to pick up my camera every week and push my creativity. I began in January 2018, quickly falling into a routine of submitting, commenting, and receiving feedback. Week after week, I embraced the challenge, whether it focused on a specific technique or was more open-ended. By December 2018, I had completed 52 consecutive weeks of submissions and became a proud weekly warrior.
Over the next six years, I tackled various challenges, from self-portraits to learning basic Photoshop techniques. During COVID, I discovered the art of finding interesting subjects around the house. This project stretched my creativity in unimaginable ways. Each week, I made time to create an image and engage with others’ submissions.
What I appreciate about 52 Frames is its simplicity: the only rules are that the photo must be taken by you and within the challenge week. Beyond that, participants are free to interpret the project in their own way. Some take on extra challenges or impose their own constraints. For example, one participant uses flowers in every submission, while another sticks to black and white photography.
In December 2023, as I was finishing up my sixth year with 52 Frames, I started to wonder whether to continue in 2024. I needed something to push my creativity, so I decided to add a writing component. I began captioning each image with a haiku, adhering to the traditional 5-7-5 syllable structure. So far, I’ve completed 38 weeks in 2024 without missing a single haiku. Most of my haikus fit neatly within the 5-7-5 format, though occasionally I add a few extra sentences or a pinned comment for further explanation.
Why haikus? I once saw a comedian perform “Defending the Caveman,” which humorously explored how women tend to use more words than men. While I can’t speak for all women, I’m certainly verbose. Each week, I would max out the character limit for photo captions. By choosing to write haikus, I’ve had to dramatically simplify my storytelling, embracing a format that challenges my creativity but doesn’t require rhyming.
My approach to writing haikus has evolved. Initially, I had to significantly reduce my usual wordiness. Now, I focus on the essence of the story—its beginning, middle, and end—then distill it into the haiku format. This process generally takes less than five minutes. While I’ve never used ChatGPT for this project—finding it faster to write my own haikus—I do use an online syllable counter and occasionally consult a thesaurus. Beyond that, it’s just my own creativity at work. It’s funny how now my brain now tends to think in the haiku format — even while I am still making my image for the week. Sometimes I even compose the haiku before I have even made the image.
This challenge has been both fun and stimulating, providing a reason to engage weekly. I’ve never undertaken a long-term writing challenge before and am enjoying it immensely. Everyone comes to 52 Frames for different reasons. At a time in my life when there is incredible chaos and uncertainty, 52 Frames provides a safe place for me to explore my creativity in a way that works for me week after week. For that, I am eternally grateful!
