Moving Stills: The Exhibit Launch and Awarding

An privilege to participate in one of the worthy causes I've supported. Honoring the Dignity of Filipino Workers who have decided to stay and move the nation.

Do visit. :)

For more information go to the Outlooke Pointe Foundation website.

LIYAB PILIPINAS.

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poster by Javi Cabanes

A Call To Move the Nation

Shoot To Move the Nation: A tough mandate. 500 photographers rise up to call to capture moving stills of the Dignity of Filipino Workers with all intensity and integrity. On the 6th of February, down to 100 top photographs, over dinner and palpable creative adrenaline, I listened to the animated discussion that revolved around the art as a vehicle to fuel patriotic revival. OPF Chairman, Atty. Jesulito Manalo believes in the great potential of this nation. He believes that the universality of appreciating art and culture is a strong uniting force. “Culture now becomes the means to bring across the message of getting our act together in a powerful contagion that crosses borders and differing standpoints,” He muses.

The battlecry: Liyab Piliipinas: Reigniting passion for the nation, and for this specific project, using art and culture as a platform for advocacy. The contest ran from November 2008 to January 2009. Originally the contest would have ended on December 2008, but due to an incessant flooding of the site’s feedback form, the people at The OPF agreed to a deadline extension.

For a pilot project, many were shocked by the overwhelming response. Executive Director Rinka Romero, when asked how she felt as the entries literally flooded in says, “I was humbled. The results were overwhelming. It made me see that I underestimated the audience, that they were more willing to be involved than I gave them credit for.”

The response was felt even among the staff, and I was told that it came to the point, they were apologetic to Rinka as they came in to herald the delivery of even more entries: (Ma’am, sorry po, may regalo ako sa inyo. Hulaan niyo kung ano).




The top 100 photos waited, laid out on a number of tables around the dinner table and judges Quark Henares, Quincy Castillo, Justice Adolf Azcuna, Steve Tirona and Kidlat Tahimik (who sent in his scores earlier during the day)started to go around the lined up prints to rate each by the criteria: Relevance to theme, Image impact and Creativity.

One of the judges, Steve Tirona, renowned photographer of Manny Pacquiao’s latest victory says of what he would consider a good photograph, "The picture is able to make an impact when it tells a story without words.”



Former Philippine Camera Club President and 3-time winner of the prestigious award: Master Photographer Quincy Castillo says that the shift from traditional film to digital has cost the craft quite a bit. He says, “The main difference between users of the two can be seen in one’s discipline. Developing one film slide used to cost 200 pesos. It takes a photographer to practice discipline of planning his shot before-hand to arrive at a good picture. This is what needs to be retained while enjoying the benefits of convenience that the digital medium of photography brings to the craft.”


I looked around the room and saw the passion that carried the project to its fruition. The photographs were striking. I was awed by the fact that one of the entries I saw came from an 18 year old. I saw different messages that communicated the various images of the Dignity of the Filipino Worker. Some photographs showed strength. Some showed craftsmanship. Some showed cheerful candor. Some showed courage. The top 100 collections showed the different settings of a Filipino at work. The agricultural worker. The professional. The family provider. The builder of highways.


But all in all what I saw in the results of the contest was the ability of Filipinos to exist in a variety of settings. To excel in a variety of fields. To remain bright eyed and enthusiastic no matter what the toil. To keep in productive perseverance no matter what the pressure.



The Outlooke Pointe Foundation highlights this evolution in reviving the use of photography as a craft that empowers, rebuilds and unleashes the passion inherent in every Filipino to take what has been given us from colonialism to slavery, from battle scars to victory and use what has once imprisoned us to be the very experience that sets us free.


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pictures by Javi Cabanes

Cubao X Discovery

I have been aching to go to Cubao X for the longest time. But a Manila Southerner like me finds it pretty impossible to squeeze in the time to drive all the way. The ache to breathe in a new place where art lives is so strong that I am really decided to visit the area this weekend. Even if I'm not the most patient driver in the world. I want to especially visit this shop that I read about in ProjectManila.com because there is something about the intricately arranged vintage collection of all sorts of things that sparks up stories in my mind. I want to touch them and look at them up close and wonder about the people who owned them. What they were like. What they constantly thought about. Why they had to give these things away.

I'm thinking that maybe this is why I experienced that little mishap of leaving my phone at home today. To drive all the way there after just being in the office for less than 30 minutes would normally be a frustrating decision but something inside me didn't go all too frantic. The sky was cloudy with a pale tinge of orange. The expanse of Skyway was empty and it was indeed a peaceful drive.

The more the hunger grows for art to arise. The more the authentic self longs to be released. Released through resonating with old things that tells old stories. Released through resonating with photographs painted with light and thought showing a far greater universe than what we can see.

The Red Boots Journey

the red boots journey

This picture got 13 views and 7 comments in Flickr. My highest rating to date since I resurrected my Flickr back up about 2 weeks ago. That Flickr account has been there for 5 years or so but I never really ended up using it because of rising social networks like Multiply and Facebook. Somehow, I've forgotten what it felt like to be anonymous to the internet public. Somehow, I've forgotten what it's like to appreciate the work of a stranger and to look forward to exciting discoveries from random people. Somehow, I've also forgotten how affirming it felt like to get feedback from people I don't know.

This photo was taken in ParadiZoo Cavite. It's an hour and a half drive from Alabang. More pictures that I've taken are in my Flickr Album. But I am specifically fond of this picture because of how it was a moment that was just there, waiting to be captured.

I like the whitewashed paint on the steps. These are steps to a small house located in the Zoo. The boots where just there as if somebody left them. I like how the boots stand out against the whitewash paint. It's a charming sight and it reminds me of cozy walks on a quiet afternoon.

LiYAB PILIPINAS: A New Renaissance

How many of us Pinoys often sit around waiting from dawn till dusk the flourishing of the Filipino dream? What is the Filipino dream anyway? So much has been said about the American Dream where the promise is of a land that prospers your life. But what has been said about the Filipino dream? For me, the Filipino dream is that of becoming authentic to the nature that we have been born with. For more than 300 years the Philippine Culture has been influenced by so many nations. I have often wondered about a simple question. So who is a Filipino?? Stripped off all its influences what makes up a Real True Blue Pinoy?

photo by Adrienne Santos
model: Javi Cabanes
location: Vista Mar Cebu City

I've been reading a lot of magazines these days and have been running into people who mostly represent something quite extraordinary happening in the Philippine Society today. There seems to be a New Renaissance flourishing from the quiet coffee tables of Starbucks to the corners of FullyBooked Boni High to the bright lights of Mag-Net to the cozy hippie scene of Cubao X. There seems to be an uproar coming from the once silenced voice of Filipino writers, artists, photographers in magazines like I-MAG, ROAM Philippines, indie musicians performing in 19East or Saguijo.

I am not a well informed individual. But for someone who has been "out of the scene" as long as I have, the gravitation of this phenomenon to lift up the hidden talents ingrained in our culture and collective make-up is tugging at my heart strings. I see entrepreneurial and creative endeavors from Multiply to Facebook to Blogspot. I see an overwhelming desire for dreams and to see dreams come true for fellowmen alike in careers, vocations, foundations you name it.

There is a huge hunger that refuses to be satiated now with just mere pop culture. There is an unquenchable desire for meaning. There is a passionate desire to burn bright and light up dreams that have been asleep.

LIYAB PILINAS, the heartwrenching cry of The Outlook Pointe Foundation reverberates inside many of us seekers who have stood long at the sidelines just watching, observing and absorbing the changing faces of our country's people. Wondering if we will ever produce something phenomenal that can change this part of the world. LIYAB PILIPINAS is a cry of those who know that hope is just a step away and that a hurdle is not too high to jump over or a mountain too big that it can't be moved.

LIYAB PILIPINAS is the call of every born and bred Filipino who sees the soul of the nation with eyes of possibility. It is seeing a diamond in the rough shaping up to glitter through dust. It is seeing a sleeping giant awaken. It is seeing every heart that knows how to fight and struggle and love with the fierceness of a tribal warrior and the grace of a Maria Clara.

LIYAB PILIPINAS is a choice to overcome and believe and create with all you have and make it your life.

Ikaw, ano ang LIYAB PILIPINAS mo?

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