Estan Cabigas

Tata Gil Nartea, veteran photojournalist who has witnessed one of the country's troubled years.

Tata Gil Nartea, veteran photojournalist has visually recorded one of the country’s darkest years as well as documented the vibrant Rock n Roll music scene.

Mahirap. Walang pera dito. Kailangan pa ang buong commitment mo (Its hard. There’s no money here and it demands your full commitment).

In those sentences, Gil Nartea, veteran photojournalist with a 33 year track record summarized what it is to be in this profession in the country.

Pero witness ka at hawak mo ang visual history ng Pilipinas at kasama ka doon (But your a witness and you have the visual history of the Philippines in your hands).

It was 2 in the afternoon of Sunday that I met with the acknowledged Rock ‘n Roll Photographer of the Philippines at an upscale mall in Cubao, Quezon City, Metro Manila. Discussing over a cup of coffee and a half eaten banana muffin, I was regaled of his stories and experiences spanning from the 1970s to the present leaving me in awe and wide eyed. What started out as a hobby in 1975, Photography had become a profession and his way of visually recording the country.

Six years after the declaration of martial law in 1972 by then President Ferdinand Marcos, student activism in the country was at an all time high. The abuses of the Marcos dictatorship were enough fodder to fuel the rage of socially conscious individuals everywhere. Tata Gil, as how he is fondly called, then a college student was a member of Kabataang Makabayan or more known by its initials, KM, one of the active progressive groups at the time. Frequent forays in the streets, rallies and other activities found him documenting their struggles. Two years later and having graduated from Adamson University as a scholar with a Major in English and later a Masters in Philippine Literature, he was teaching. He was one of the founding members of the Teachers Center of the Philippines, the fore runner of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers or ACT with the likes of Etta Rosales, now a partylist representative in Congress.

With his talent as a photographer, he was recommended to be a part of Photobank Philippines, an NGO that documented Philippine activism under the Marcos dictatorship which provided photos to alternative publications or what is known as the underground or mosquito press. During the Aquino government, he was a fulltime photographer for Midweek Magazine, in his words,

a serious left leaning publication

that not only covered hard news but also offered lifestyle and entertainment, much like what Asiaweek or Time magazine do but focused on the Philippines. After the magazine closed in 1992 he has been with several other publications like newspapers either serving as a staff photographer, contributor, chief photographer, photo editor or as a stringer for the wires. After being with ABS-CBN Publishing, he is now a close-in photographer of Senator Mar Roxas since September of last year.

One memorable stint that he fondly remembers was his time at the Manila Chronicle wherein he was the chief photographer.

I was overseeing the Sunday Chronicle and we focused on photo stories,

referring to the weekly lifestyle supplement of the paper.

I was their favorite photographer, maybe because of my style.

It was during this time that he was photographing the different bands that were primarily playing at the 70s Bistro along Anonas St. in Quezon City, a regular habitué or tambayan of NGOs. It was where he has been shooting the Jerks and Jess Santiago, to cite two.

I’m attracted to musicians and literary figures. Bago pa yan si Ely Buendia (of Eraserheads, one of the countries iconic bands), kinukunan ko na yan (When Ely Buendia was still new, I already took images of him). I have many photos of Pepe Smith or of any other famous bands and singers. If I am to make a tribute to these artists, I can come up with a project easily because of the wealth of photos that I have taken over the years.

It was because of this that during the concluding dinner of a workshop handled by the World Press Photo Foundation in Jakarta for Asian Photojournalists, he was acknowledged as the Rock ‘n Roll Photographer of the Philippines. If a book should be published on the history of the genre in the country, Tata Gil is the person to do it.

Other than documenting musicians and writers, teaching is also a passion. During the 80s, he was conducting photography classes up in the camps of the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the National Democratic Front, a leftist umbrella organization. In 1994, he was teaching Photography as part of a Fine Arts course in Philippine Women’s University. Now, he has a Photojournalism class at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.

Maliit lang ang sweldo pero satisfying. (The pay is small but…)

The complete photojournalist is also one of the founding members of the Philippine Center for Photojournalism.

We want to raise the standards of the profession in the country as well as how it is perceived by other Filipino journalists. We want to bat for equal rates payment by publications and erase the practice of “envelopmental” journalism.

He laments though, that it’s a hard and long way of realizing these objectives. When the World Press Foundation looked for a venue in setting up a Photojournalism program in the country, he was one of three photojournalists who coordinated and formed the Konrad Adenauer Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University together with veterans Alex Baluyut and Jimmy Domingo. Despite the slow pace of change in the profession, he is happy, notwithstanding, that there is already palpable change that he sees in the practices in some news bureaus.

By this time, two hours into the interview, there were already seven cigarette butts in the ashtray and lighting his eighth and last. The World Press Photo Exhibition has just concluded last Friday, 22 August and I asked him about his thoughts of Filipino Photojournalists making it into the prestigious contest or about the absence of a Filipino voice in the international scene when it comes to Photojournalism. His answer surprised me but at the same time confirmed some thoughts.

We lack trainings unlike in other developing countries like India. Other than the lack of an outlet for photo stories wherein there is much focus on the single image, there seems to be a lack of commitment and motivation among photojournalists to do this kind of work. Documentary photojournalism demands time and effort.

However, we come into agreement that there is hope for the country especially with the recent success of VJ Villafranca in winning the Ian Parry grant.

Through his lens, we have become familiar with how our people struggled to regain our democracy, witnessed the blossoming of a vibrant music scene and learned much of the history of the country from the visual sensitivity of an accomplished photojournalist like Tata Gil Nartea. Before the interview ends, he advises an aspiring photojournalist:

Shoot lang ng shoot. Keep on honing your craft, practice and strive to effect change through your images.

Tags: interview, tata gil nartea