UNA, 9 new photo documentary stories exhibition opening night

THE Alex Baluyut conducted his first masterclass in documentary photography and the result is UNA, an exhibition of the works of his nine students which opened at the Manila Collective the other night. What made this interesting were the varied themes that the students did. Two works caught my eye: Julie Batula’s cockfighting story, One Way Out, with very interesting visuals and Rommel Rebollido’s Crumpled Dreams, Wrinkled Realities which offered intimate images.

The exhibition runs until 8 September at the Cubao X complex.

Gagamboys work is presented as a photo story in this exhibit

My flagellant photo entitled "Nature Fashion" is included in the exhibition

Asian News in Pictures is an exhibition of the Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University as part of its 10th anniversary.

The exhibit showcases the diversity of issues confronting Asia and are among the best single and photo stories in the portfolios submitted by students as a final requirement in the Diploma in Photojournalism (DPJ) course.

Here, my Gagamboys work (also published in Asian Currents magazine) and flagellant photo entitled Nature Fashion, part of my A Ritual of Faith series, is included. The exhibit is open to the public from 7 – 30 June 2010 at the MVP Center for Student Leadership (formerly Colayco Hall), Ateneo de Manila University, Loyola Heights, Quezon City, Metro Manila.

My flagellant photo was wrongly credited to another photojournalist.

One thing that sort of disappointed me when I arrived before the opening of the exhibit was seeing one of my prized images wrongly credited to another photojournalist that I immediately called their attention. As a stop gap measure, they covered it with masking tape.

A riverine tributary in one of the mangrove areas of Busuanga Island. This is part of a series of black and white landscape images that will be exhibited.

My series of black and white aerial landscapes will be in a unique exhibition on the environment today at SM North Cyberzone. Part of Tribe’s Earth and Art event, one of Net 25′s infotainment shows, I’m one of the featured artist/photographer where our works and corresponding videos will be featured in a series of flat screen televisions which the organizers dub as a transmedia exploration.

Launching will be at 1800H and will be up until tomorrow only.

Busuanga: From Forests to Farmlands

Forests once covered over 90% of the Philippines and today, after decades of logging, slash and burn farming, development and a population of more than 90 million has left us with a mere 7% forest cover or even less. Where once verdant greenery abound, thick with massive stands of trees, these lungs of the earth have been replaced with grasslands, fields, housing and industry.

This is a sad development considering that we are in the midst of a worldwide, human induced global warming that is already affecting weather patterns and with it, climate change making an impact on our food security and threatening our way of living.

As a photographer, there is a sense of urgency to show what we have and what we are losing. Through my images, I have the responsibility to make people aware of what we are doing to the environment that even if we are not directly razing these forests, our lifestyle and consumerist habits are contributing to its demise.

Busuanga: From Forests to Farmlands is a series of aerial images showing the varied landscape of one of the bigger islands that comprise the Calamianes Group in northern Palawan. As one surveys it’s topography, there is an alarming transition from forests to fields: patches of clearing amidst greenery, logged hills, roads scarring the land and an encroaching irrigated field for a rice paddy.

Through these work, the photographer hopes people will realize that even in remote areas in the country, as distant as Busuanga, deforestation is ongoing. What’s more with the bigger islands where majority of the Philippine population is thriving?

Exhibition dates: 23-24 February 2010
Where: 4/F SM North Cyberzone

Below is the Youtube version of the digital video exhibit

A student visitor of the WPP 09 exhibit at the MOA during one of the guided tours

My ID as an exhibition guide for students

After three weeks in the country, the World Press Photo 2009 exhibition in Manila ended last Sunday at the SM Mall of Asia. For me, it’s also a break from the weekly ingress and egress as we setup and transferred the exhibit from one venue to another as well as the five days, all weekends, of doing the guided tours for high school campus journalists. While tiring, it’s one of the most fulfilling activities I have in the past few months. Partaking one’s knowledge as well as impressing young minds about photojournalism and photography is just so cool.

First day of the World Press Photo 09 exhibit at The Block mall.

I’m so tired and “wasted.” My throat is hurting from the six or seven groups of high school students that I toured around the World Press Photo 2009 Manila exhibit at The Block mall. What made matters worse was that the background music was blaring loudly. Other than that, my feet hurt. But then, doing the guided tours was fulfilling as I get to share with these campus journalists about photojournalism, “reading” images and photography.

Next week, I will be at the Mall of Asia wherein another batch of students will be doing the rounds.

Setting up the World Press Photo 09 exhibit at The Block mall, the second venue in Metro Manila