Filipinas

hey, the second article i wrote for the philippine star's ystyle section has been published. i'm posting the full text below, but you can also check it out here (not for long, though).

i can type really fast without looking at the keyboard, and i was really grateful for that skill when i interviewed isa (who told me she is rina's aunt). if i had been hunched over my laptop, i might have missed how fun and inspiring she was! i was blown away by how firmly she stood for her artistic vision in the face of discouragement, indifference, difficulty and even... drumroll please... offers to buy her work, a.k.a. money. (i would have probably sold out. haha.) i was also blown away when it occurred to me that isa had become what she'd intended the women in her photos to be... real and inspiring.

her staff actually gave me a really comprehensive media kit and press release. theoretically i could have just done a couple of nips and tucks and turned those in well before deadline, but i enjoyed my conversation with isa too much to be a sly, cheating shmuck.

incidentally, i've actually been to the unesco house in paris, where isa showed her photographs. acs performed there last october.

anyway, here's the article. see if you can guess who the "false start" was.

Filipina greats

By Deepa Paul
The Philippine STAR 03/02/2007

To the public at large, Filipinas is a series of photographs of 30 Filipina women. Having first opened in February 2006, Filipinas, the exhibit, shows the faces and stories of women who are pioneers in their respective fields, whose example or leadership paved the way for other Filipina women to become more than what was expected of them. But to photographer Isa Lorenzo, creative director of Silver Lens Photography, Filipinas is "a four-year journey."

The journey began, as most do, with an idea; for Filipinas, it was Isa’s idea of an "homage to women who have reached lifetime successes." Having heard about some of these women since childhood, Isa set out to put together a list of women who had, in some way or other, gone beyond themselves in areas that were difficult. "My qualifications for inclusion in this list were accomplishment and age—they must have done a lot in their lives and they must be old enough to not screw up their achievements."

She intended her list to include only 12 women, but Isa soon realized that the Filipina’s power to inspire, and the number of lives that deserved acknowledgement, could not be limited to such a small number. "We have a lot of Filipinas who are firsts in Asia, like the first female mayor in Asia, the first Asian graduate of the Harvard school of medicine. By the way, she’s 97 and still practicing!" Isa quips.

Getting Started

List in hand, Isa’s journey had barely begun. There was the task of learning about each of the 30 women on the list and hunting down people who knew them—children, grandchildren, relatives, students, and friends—and would agree to deliver Isa’s letters of introduction and samples of her work. There was having to deal with rejection for reasons of health or vanity; an unnamed patron of the arts promptly and firmly declined upon learning that she would have to be photographed without makeup. There was the logistical nightmare of scheduling the shoots, despite the fact that Isa only required a maximum of 20 minutes of actual shooting time. "These women are so busy, it’s insane!" Isa exclaims "The most difficult was (National Bookstore founder) Socorro Ramos – we had to schedule her 15 minutes of shooting time six months in advance!"

There were false starts, too – such as the very first subject Isa chose to photograph. "As soon as I began shooting, I knew I had the wrong woman. I felt like running away! Hindi ko siya kaya!" Isa says, laughing. "I didn’t shoot for three months after that." Trauma? Perhaps, but Isa is quick to say that she used the time to thresh out her artistic vision for the exhibit, and to focus on what she wanted to achieve with the photographs she would compile. The subject of Isa’s first shoot (a larger-than-life, controversial historical figure) never made the final cut – a conscious exclusion that Isa feels "changed the nature of the project completely."

Then came the processing of the film, the edits, the search for the paper to print the mural-sized images on, coordination with the printer, meetings with various national institutions as venues for the show, and on and on. The project took roughly three years to complete.

Hitting The Road

Filipinas’ opening night at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) almost exactly one year ago was not the end of the road, but the beginning of a new and unimagined path beyond the gallery. Filipinas traveled to universities all over Metro Manila, where it faced the puzzled scrutiny of students who goggled at the size of the photos and wondered what the big fuss was about these bare-faced, deeply lined, and in many cases, completely anonymous women.

What they discovered beyond the bafflement and curiosity blew them away, much to Isa’s delight. "We brought the show to Far Eastern University, where one girl remembered that she had totally hated her high school. But she had one teacher, just one that she really loved, who made all the difference and kept her from just suffering through high school," Isa recounts. "These women are like that. It then became very real to these students that just one woman can make a world of difference." More importantly, Isa says, once students saw that, they began thinking beyond the world of "I can never be like that, I’m not from where they’re from, I don’t have what they have" to "I can make a difference, too."

From gallery to university to retail spaces and malls, Filipinas continued to move and inspire with its clean, stark images and powerful message. It was only a matter of time until its journey proved to be entirely unstoppable. So unstoppable, in fact, that in December last year, one of the world’s biggest organizations came knocking with an invitation.

Paris And Beyond

Upon the suggestion of Filipinas curator Deanna Ongpin-Recto, Isa had tossed off a letter to UNESCO in July 2006 – and had promptly forgotten about it. So the invitation to show the exhibit at the UNESCO House in Paris came as a total, yet welcome, surprise. Filipinas was chosen by the UNESCO Section on Women and Gender Equality to be shown for a full week, in celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8. Isa was also asked to speak about the photographs and bring her UNESCO audience face to face with a few of the women whose photographs were part of the exhibit.

Paris marks Filipinas’ first step outside Philippine borders – and that, Isa feels, makes a huge difference not just to the photographer and her subjects, but to Filipinas and the Philippines. "The face of the Filipina known to the world is the OFW. But these women are not that. Not many people know about this side of the Filipina," Isa emphasizes. "People will see that the Philippines has something more to show. It will be acknowledged on a different level, on a global platform." It is Isa’s belief that that global recognition will pave the way for greater acknowledgment and appreciation where it truly counts – back home.

After being parked in Paris until late spring, Filipinas will continue its journey across Europe in May 2006, visiting Madrid, Rome, Geneva and "somewhere in Germany, maybe Berlin." The Department of Foreign Affairs has taken Filipinas under its wing and put Philippine embassies to work finding places to show it in Europe; no mean feat, considering the difficulties posed by an election year. "The embassies’ minds are on anything but arts and culture," Isa says wryly. "But Filipinas is apolitical, neutral, it’s para sa bayan – and they get that. That made it easier, in a way."

The photographs have been compiled into a book for publishing in June, and arrangements are being made with the Undersecretary for American Affairs to bring Filipinas to the United States later in the year. Having enjoyed a lengthy run uncommon to most local exhibits, Isa is committed to propelling Filipinas as far into the future as it can possibly go – a commitment that stands in the face of offers to buy or borrow select photographs. "This is not a selling show, where the work gets broken up into pieces for sale," Isa emphasizes. "It was so difficult to gather all of these women. Why will I ever take them apart?"

After traveling abroad and going down the publishing route, what else lies ahead in Filipinas’ path? Isa thinks back to the beginning for the answer. She remembers assembling the list, being extra careful about inclusions or exclusions, combing through fields of society and far-flung communities for exceptional lives, and scrutinizing these lives for ethical value. "It was so hard to find good people who are still good and still at it," Isa says. "But there are more out there. I just haven’t had an opportunity to meet them, and photograph them, just yet."

* * *Filipinas is open for public viewing at UNESCO House, 7 Place de Fontenoy, Paris, until March 9. It is presented in cooperation with the Museum Foundation of the Philippines, Department of Foreign Affairs, National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and Cultural Center of the Philippines. For more information, visit www.filipinas.silverlensphoto.com/about.htm