day 336: sa wakas...

For me the main responsibility of a documentary photographer is to share to the public the story of your subject. Tomorrow and this Sunday, I'll be having a photo exhibit on Realities- a photo story on the social understanding of the pop subculture known as cosplay.

This is my thesis during my diploma course in photojournalism in ACFJ (2010-2011), but its more than just that. For me this is a story of different people who find themselves an interesting culture in which they can share their creativity and individuality to the others.

Thanks to Project 8, Guy Singson, Zoila and Lira of UPAME and Gaz and Annie from UST and cosplay.ph .Its a privilege to document your wonderful stories guys and I hope I'm able to bring justice to it.

This story is dedicated to you and all the cosplayers in the Philippines. Keep the culture alive and let it grow for the future generation.

Many thanks to Lea Guerrero, Arthur Diono, Alex Baluyot, Gigie Cruz-Sy, Cristina Derillo, Jenny Tuazon and for all those who support my one year project :) (hehe I sound like Lolit Solis)

Kudos to all of you!!

day off tatts

Last August 26-27, the annual tattoo expo event called Dutdutan was held at World Trade Center Pasay City, Manila. Its a convention wherein local and international tattoo artists gathered to showcase their art and to educate the public about this eccentric and unique lifestyle.

Its quite a lively event with drum duels, live action combat, bikini open photo shoot by FHM models and of course cat walk of the tattoo works of the artists. Despite of the heavy rains brought by typhoon Mina, a lot of people still attended the event to witness this wonderful craft and of course to enjoy the free show of beautiful models and free drinks ^_^



A tattoo artist from Tribu in which she uses a traditional tool for carving a tattoo on his colleague's ankle



A model showcase her tattoo the Holy Family as part of the portraits category.



A Japanese youkai (demon) tattoo is showcase as part of the portraits category.



Morgan Eyes poses for the photographers during the event, she's an international tattoo artists from Tribal Gear and one of the special guest for this year's Dutdutan.



May this culture continue to grow and may the public be more open to them and accept them as a form of art and creativity.

komiks!!!!

I'm always fascinated in the world of comics growing up reading Funny Komiks and sharing the adventures of Combatron,Petit, Tomas and Kulas and Eklok. Those light and action pack stories always makes me laugh and taught me a lot of stuff about life.

Last Saturday I attended the Metro Comic Con 2011 at SM Megamall and was able to meet up with some of the great artists and story tellers of comics. From the re-known artist of V for Vendetta, Mr.David Llyod to the promising writer Mr. Budjette Tan of the local phenomenon Trese, I was overwhelm to shake their hands and express my appreciation to their works. Then, I was able to see lots and lots of comics from the western to the local ones. Its good to see a lot of local artists selling their works (they remind me of the doujinshi event episode in Genshiken :)


I noticed that most of the local artists are still into manga or western style of drawing their but some of them have this distinctive quality that gives a feeling of a Pinoy made work like Trese. Cha my good friend told me about this comic book about a lady name Alexandra Trese who solves folklore cases in Metro Manila. Its not a first that Filipino comics made a story out of folklores but what is different with Trese is the setting of this folklore tale. Its a combination of modern crime scenes wherein the culprits are manananggals,aswang,tyanaks and other folklore characters. Its a good story for the new generation of Filipino youth to learn and appreciate our legends.



Only a few cosplayers are present in this event which are mostly western characters but with some anime and manga cosplayers. This is good change of phase for me because I've been working with them for the past 6 months ^_^

I'm happy to attend this event and its quite a breather from my hectic school and work schedules. Its a privilege to see, meet and witness the beautiful and interesting works of this master story tellers and artists.

Kampai to the comics world!!

hanabi

Hanabi, or fireworks in English, can really be considered as an entire season in Japan. For them Hanabi marks the summer season, and it's also a chance for all the kids to forget about school for a couple of weeks before going back. For the adults, it's a chance to get away from it all.

I decided to take a little break from my folio project and shoot the 2nd International Pyromusical Competition in Mall of Asia last Mar 5. The scheduled competition is between Japan and Canada.Japan's representative is Tamaya Kitahara Fireworks Co. and their presentation is very spectacular. It's reflects on how animated Japanese people are by proper combination of artistic fireworks and the musical scoring from the upbeat theme of Super Mario to the smooth piano melody of What A Wonderful World. The audience are being swept in awe with the beauty of the fireworks and the flow of the musical transitions. For me it gives me a feeling of watching a mecha (robots) and shojou (romantic love) type of anime series. Its action pack at the same time very romantic.

For Japanese people hanabi are considered as "flowers of fire" like the splendid cherry blossoms' brief in existence but booms with beauty.



hanabi!!!
Fiiiireeee!!!(screaming like launching a missile from a robot :)


Smiley :)


People braving the rains just to watch the show


A thousand big fireflies in the sky

"Sizz...Whew...Kaboom! Pop-pop-pop! Fuss...Fizz..."