Postcard from Penang: Two-Time Contributor Paul W. Jacob (Jake) Shares His Current Project—Photo-Haikuism of Southeast Asia

Nov 4

Thirty years ago, I started out as a photo-journalist for music and travel magazines while also composing pieces for environmental activism. My writing career has taken me along many other paths since then, but I have always retained a love of photography.

When I was the writer-in-residence for the Stony Point Center in New York (2017–2018), I did a seasonal haiku/leaf printing project that was both published as a book and curated as an art show in several galleries and libraries in New Jersey and New York. This kindled in me a deep appreciation for the simplicity, depth, minimalism, and elasticity of haiku and it’s 5-7-4 syllabic structure.

Now that my wife and I live nomadically, including the last two years in Southeast Asia, I have developed a fondness for what I have coined, “Photo-Haikuism.” This allows me to integrate two spontaneous and place-oriented creative mediums into one holistic artistic synthesis.

Paul W. Jacob (Jake)

Penang, Malaysia