Last night I was at the Bonifacio Global City for the TEDx, my second. What I like about this event are the inspiring stories as well as the invaluable learnings that one can get through the various speakers. But my main reason for attending was to hear the multiawarded documentary photographer, Veejay Villafranca who won the Ian Parry last 2008.

It was also interesting to see a few of his Filipino Faith series which, I’m also doing and it’s always good to know other photographer’s works on the same subject. In that way, I can gauge how I’m also doing and learn about that photographer’s approach. You can check mine via my blog and my Pagtu-o subsite.

Just click below for the audio recording that I did via my Nokia 6700 Classic phone. Do note that it’s not of the best quality. To check more his work, visit his website.

Veejay Villafranca’s TEDx Bonifacio speech

While browsing Slightly Lucid, one entry just got me curious: JOAKIM ESKILDSEN – THE ROMA JOURNEYS. Maybe it was the subject, the color, the image or Aislinn’s post itself that got to me that I evidently checked this photographer’s portfolio site.

And I wasn’t disappointed.

I only have a slight knowledge of the Roma, or as we know them, gypsies, courtesy of films and stories and also via Carlo Gianferro who won in the Portaits category, 1st Prize, in the World Press Photo 2009, which was exhibited here in the Philippines. It was for his work on affluent Romas in Romania and Moldova, a series of environmental portraits taken inside the boldly colored and richly decorated interiors of these people’s houses. An interesting body of work.

Joakim’s The Roma Journeys on the other hand is expansive, taken for six years covering India, Russia and five countries in Europe with a writer. This is testament to this widely dispersed people who are minorities in these places.

The images are something that you can’t just forget. It grabs you, makes you look at it longer. Just like Gianferro, Joakim takes advantage of natural light. It is moodily saturated. There’s a hint of mystery but at the same time, deeply personal.

This is one work that I would want to see face to face one day and own the book.

Last September, the German photographer Espen Eichhöfer was invited by the Goethe Institut – Manila, a contribution to its regional project, City Scapes, to conduct a workshop for eight Filipino photographers at the Silverlens Gallery. It’s the second time that this kind of workshop was held, the first, with Peter Bialobrzeski that culminated in the Mapping Invisible Cities traveling exhibit.

This time, Goethe Institut focused on the Philippines as it was the only country in the Southeast Asian region that enthusiastically responded to the first workshop. With the theme Portraits, eight photographers interpreted it and the output is
AS IT IS.

Like the first work, Urban Manila, I designed this website.