South African photographer, Roddy Fox, has been combining his stunning images with haiku published in The Mamba Journal.

The combination of artwork with a haiku poem is known as haiga. Traditionally, the art would have comprised a brush painting, though, in modern times the poem might be combined with a photograph or even a video.

Initially, Roddy paired the following haiku by Ingrid Baluchi (from Mamba Journal Issue 10) with a video of elephants that Roddy took at Amakhala Game Reserve:

padded feet
sinking softly into soil
the silence of elephants

Roddy’s beautiful images reinforce the gentle and serene movement of elephants portrayed in Ingrid’s haiku. You can watch The Silence of Elephants haiga by scrolling down at this link.

More recently, Roddy has shown his creative versatility by incorporating a haiku of mine (from Mamba Journal Issue 6) into a haiga that is quite different in style. My haiku was:

rhinoceros –
his horn
some place else

This haiku could be referencing the poaching of rhinoceros horn, though it may also be referring to the humane removal of rhinoceros horn that is sometimes undertaken to ensure an animal is not targeted by poachers.

The rhino haiga brings together images, words and sound with quite chilling effect. (Make sure you have the sound turned on when you view the video.)

Please view Roddy’s Rhinoceros haiga at this link.

I might mention as well that the most recent Mamba Journal, Issue 11, presents another haiku of mine:

hanging out
with the baboons
a lone puku

The puku is a medium-sized antelope found over a relatively limited range and having a conservation status of ‘Near Threatened’. Presumably this lone puku finds comfort in hanging out with a troop of baboons who will sound the alarm if a predator approaches.

Thanks to Roddy Fox for his great work in combining African haiku and video images. You can see more of Roddy’s wonderful work at his Sundowner blog.