A spider being readied for a fight.

Good news! After talking with my adviser, Philippine Daily Inquirer’s chief photographer, Ernie Sarmiento, I will proceed with the gagamboy story. I have enough images to make one and I will be pursuing this one beyond the course. Well, I really had no choice but to go on with it as time is really tight. I was initially thinking of my La Loma slaughterhouse story as I have already most images but my time won’t permit it.

I just hope, it will pass the panel’s scrutiny.

A spider caught from the fields of Nueva Ecija is housed in this apartment box. It will be used for the seasonal arachnid fights.

Just when I’m at the final week of doing my final projects for my Diploma in Photojournalism course at the ACFJ, bad news greeted me in Bagong Barrio, Caloocan. One of the photo stories that I am working on got raided and the men think that I was the one who told the police. The Gagamboy Project is dead in the water. For now.

During the summer months, spider fighting is one of the popular past times for boys and men. The latter usually do this backyard tournaments where modest amounts of cash change hands. Yes. It’s illegal gambling that has caught the attention of policemen in the area.

A short wooden table with a thin stick suspended about a foot high serves as the arena where spider fights happen.

Since last year, I’ve been meaning to do a photo story on spider fights in Cebu but it wasn’t arachnid season and thus, it was just in my list of projects. While shooting in Bagong Barrio earlier this month, it was happenstance that I learned about this one and proposed this to my adviser for inclusion as one of my final project.

Unfortunately, when I went back today to continue work, I was told that the men would not want to be interviewed and photographed anymore since they were raided with four held in jail. The bad thing is that they think I was the one who tipped the police. One lady advised me:

Huwag ka nang pumunta doon. Baka mabugbog ka pa. (Don’t go there anymore. You might get mugged.)

Utter disappointment.

Spider fights happen in just seconds when one of the arachnids fall from the stick. These men gamble big amounts and police has a reason to raid them.

It’s just four days before our on-campus schedule, the final week of our course as well as defense and I’m at a loss on what stories to do as a replacement. I really can’t continue with this since I still lack some vital information and some shots and my security is not guaranteed. Oh well, I’ll defer this story for the meantime and do some quick thinking on what I will cover.

I made it as a finalist in the VEWD Student Documentary Photography Contest. Please click on the image to vote at the VEWD website.

Early this evening, I was quite surprised to receive an email from Matt Blalock informing me that I am a finalist in the VEWD Student Documentary Photography Contest.

What?!

To think that my work Coping with a Desaparecido was accepted as one of the 16 finalists is already a big honor for me.

Hello hello from Vewd!

First, let me thank you for taking the time necessary to enter Vewd’s student contest! It was received well around the world and we received a total of 125 submissions! Second, let me congratulate you on making it to the final selection. The Vewd editors have narrowed it down to 16 submissions and your work is in that selection of 16!

From the selection, the panel of judges composed of Matt Eich, Jamie Rose, Gerik Parmele, Panos Skoulidas, Andy Williams will cho0se the winning works and, hopefully, winners will be announced on 1 April.

Vote for me for People’s Choice

For the meantime, please visit the page and vote for me for the People’s Choice by clicking on the link above.

The more than century old Spanish era church of Bantayan Island.

For the past three weeks, I’ve been tracing up and down the roads of Northern Cebu, waking up early in the morning and hoping to have a good and sunny weather. Going back, I usually arrive home early in the evening tired from the day’s shoot.

The Archdiocese of Cebu will be celebrating it’s 75th anniversary this year and this book project is one of the activities that will highlight this event. Together with two other local photographers, we’re covering all the parish churches in this island province. I am doing the entire northern Cebu starting from Consolacion and ends with Asturias. This includes the parishes in the islands of the Camotes and Bantayan groups.

Is it easy? While I have done Philippine Church Façades as my first major book work launched August 2007, this time, interiors and belfry details are included. Couple that with a not always cooperative weather that I have to do some adjustments. Early in the month, there were several days of inclement weather that I opted to do all the interiors first. Whenever there’s a break in the usually overcast skies or rain, I do quick trips to the different churches for façade shots.

With just a few more days left in my stay here in Cebu before going back to Makati to work on my course final projects, it’s more likely that I will need to finish this by April. Right now, plans of going to Camotes are shelved due to bad weather forecast. But then, I’m just left with a few more areas to do and I’m done.

I just received an email from Henri Ismail inviting our group who did the Mapping Invisible Cities project with Peter Bialobrzeski for Mapping Invisible Cities II, an exhibition to be opened in time for the Jakarta Biennale 2009 under the Zone of Understanding, one of three platforms. 

The Jakarta Biennale is an art exhibition held every two years in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was titled before as the Indonesian Painting Grand Exhibition, held since 1968. In 1982, the title of Fine Art Biennale was introduced. The Biennale is held as a responsibility sign of the artists to the society and is aim for the enhancement of appreciation toward art. Jakarta Biennale is organized by The Jakarta Art Council and The Governor of Jakarta as the patron. Jakarta Biennale 09 is the first of its international character that invites outstanding artists from abroad.

This is a very good opportunity but the catch is, the work must follow a specific requirement and the schedule too tight as the project must be submitted before 10 February! It’s really very tempting and a bit challenging as the subject now is the photographer himself!

I’m still planning how I will conceptualize this one.