Page H-4 of the Sunday Lifestyle Travel section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

It was totally unexpected when I received the text message of Angge Goloy, writer, when she informed me that the article she did on me was now at page H-4 of the Philppine Daily Inquirer’s Sunday Lifestyle Travel.

I was thinking that it might never see the light of day as the interview was done around November of last year at a coffeeshop. Anyway, for matters of keeping the feature online (I’m not sure but are PDI’s articles archived forever or are just kept for a few years?), I am posting, en toto, Angge’s article.

Over at langyaw.com, I’ve posted three corrections. The article below originally appeared at inquirer.net.

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He gave up engineering job for photography 

By Angelina G. Goloy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:42:00 05/16/2009

IN W. SOMERSET Maugham’s novel “The Moon and Sixpence,” a stockbroker gives up his job, leaves his family and heads out to Paris to become an artist. He eventually spends his dying days, still painting, in Tahiti.

Charles Strickland may be a fictional character, but his story was inspired by the life of the painter Paul Gauguin.

We sometimes fantasize about turning an avocation into a vocation. But only a few dare take the bold step, a la Strickland. Estan Cabigas is one of them.

As a telecommunications engineer in a blue-chip firm, Cabigas had spent nine years handling every aspect of the job. When he rose to supervisory level, however, his enthusiasm waned. He missed the excitement of new challenges.

In 2006 his father, a seaman, died while in India. Although the two of them weren’t particularly close, the death affected Cabigas in a strange way.

“I can’t put a finger on it, but it became a factor in my decision to leave my job and go into photography,” he says. The doubt and restlessness in his professional life seemed to have found release in personal grief.

Serendipitously a photography project came along, as though to seal his fate and, one might add, fortify his faith in his decision to pursue professional photography. The project was a coffee-table book on church façades, and he was asked to take the images.

Beginnings

The twin developments were not entirely unrelated. It was his father who had led him to photography, unwittingly. Back in high school, in Talisay, Cebu, Cabigas had begun toying with a camera his father had brought home from one of his travels but never really used.

Inspired by the photographs in a Life magazine borrowed from a classmate, Cabigas started replicating the glossy images he saw. His first subject was nature. In his senior year, he was asked to take snapshots of his classmates for the school annual. He continued taking pictures on and off through college (Don Bosco Mandaluyong) and corporate life.

He progressed from storing prints in shoe boxes to uploading digital images on online repositories like Flickr, through which he was discovered by Fr. Pedro Galenda, OSA, for his book “Philippine Church Façades.” Galenda is director of San Agustin Museum, for which Cabigas continues to take photos.

Cabigas describes himself as a “religious colonial architecture enthusiast,” besides being a mountaineer, movie fan and social observer. His works lean toward art and documentary photography.

The same year he got the book project, two of his photos landed in the finals of a digital-photography competition, while two others were exhibited at the Angkor Photofestival in Cambodia.

Even with a growing folio, Cabigas did not leave anything to chance. He studied web design soon after quitting his job.

“One should also know video editing, audiovisual media to make it in this field,” says Cabigas, who has also attended photography workshops here and abroad. Late last year, he got a travel grant and joined the Singapore International Photography Festival Southeast Asian Workshop. The culminating event was an exhibit, “Mapping Invisible Cities,” which traveled around Southeast Asia.

Cabigas is completing a scholarship diploma in Photojournalism at the Konrad Adenauer Center for Journalism at Ateneo de Manila University.

An inveterate traveler, usually solo and with a bent for offbeat destinations, he complements his images with stories and insights on his blogs, one of which won in last year’s Philippine Blog Awards.

He has also contributed photos and essays to print and online publications. His domains are www.langyaw.com, estancabigas.com, simbahan.net, salagubang.net.

In celebration of langyaw’s first anniversary, he is giving away free photo e-books to subscribers.

Discovery

Cabigas is not just a photographer. He is also a serious collector of butterflies and beetles, an activity that greatly enriches his photography. He’s not into it merely as hobby:
Cabigas has contributed to the discovery of several Philippine species, all documented in international entomological journals. Why, he even has species named after him and his mother!

It started with a butterfly collection project for his high school biology class. Encouraged by his teacher, he pursued the gossamer beauties on his own. In 1994, he shifted to beetles because they’re easier to find and collect. They are also understudied, he says.

As with photography, Cabigas embarked on his own education in entomology, particularly on Coleoptera (beetles), by reading scientific journals and consulting specialists. He has established contacts with European and American entomologists who furnish him publications and papers, mostly on taxonomy and beetle classification.

According to science books, nearly half of all animal species today are beetles, and new species continue to be found. The species Cabigas has contributed to science have been published mostly in journals like Les Cahiers Magallanes series and Lambillionea. (Check out http://salagubang.net/contributions-to-philippine-coleoptera/)

“Doliops edithae was named after my mother while Paradoliops cabigasi and Phelipara (Phelipara) estanleyi were named after me. Four other species were contributed by me,” he says. 

Degradation

Cabigas says Filipino entomologists lack references and funds to access museum collections abroad for study.

“Most of these collections were done as early as the 18th century, many during the 19th and at the start of the 20th,” he says.

The country is fast losing its endemic species due to environmental degradation, he warns.

“Collecting insects doesn’t deplete or lead to extinction of these species due to their high replacement rate. But deforestation and habitat loss do,” he emphasizes. “If we don’t study what we have, how will we know how rich our biodiversity is?”

He invites readers, especially scientists, to visit his salagubang.net gallery and marvel at the beautiful and colorful specimens. His photos certainly do justice to the jewel-like creatures.

He has around 4,000 specimens from a thousand species, mostly from Mindanao, all stored in collection frames.

With no fixed income, how does he sustain himself?

It can be difficult sometimes, he concedes, but with judicious management of resources, he copes well. It helps that he does not have a family to support. Besides photography projects, there are blog ads, and he’s also thinking of opening an online store.

Earlier this year, his photodocumentary “Coping with a Desaparecido” was exhibited, on invitation, at the prestigious Chobi Mela V International Festival of Photography in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the biggest in Asia.

In March, he was in a group show, “Mapping Invisible Cities 2,” during the Jakarta Biennale XIII 2009. He is also working on another book project, in Cebu.

To anyone contemplating a similar leap of faith, he has this to say: Go ahead, follow your heart. But at the same time, be prepared.

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18 May 2009