Shoot at Random

Unforgettable Ilocos–

February is, no doubt, love month – a time to show your devotion to someone you cherish. How I wish a special moment like this was not fixed to one particular time of the year. It’s almost as though we were saying roses only bloom in February or chocolate factories stop production come March. When everyone else forgets the true meaning of the occasion, or when a world of commercialism dictates the when’s and how’s of love, that is when our hearts are denied true passion. That is when the heart becomes mechanical, resulting in passionless love.

Two days ago (February 14), I witnessed the fruit of passion ripen before my very eyes at the atrium of Robinson’s Midtown in Malate, in the form of 40 most passionate photographic images. These framed works of art bore the unassuming title of “Foto Yloco.” This is part of the National Arts Month celebration this month, which to some is also known as “National He/arts Month.”

“Sukang Iloco” may come to mind with their chosen title, but the 10 fine art photographers mounting “Foto Yloco” are more likely to evoke association with the Spanish “loco.” Dra. Jei Africa (San Francisco, USA), Carlo Claudio (Manila), Gerry Diwa (Manila), Abet Dizon (Manila), Luis Martin Harder (Manila), Tim Mendoza (Malaysia), Atty. Bianca Panganiban (Manila), Atty. Jei Panganiban (Manila), Tony Rodriguez (Sweden), Frank Sibayan (Norway) with models Aireen Enguito and Kaye Riguer, all give us glimpses into their individual insanity. Beating the odds and overcoming obstacles (e.g., a sandstorm in Bangui, heatwave in Laoag, and extreme cold in Pagudpud), these artists pushed on in the pursuit of expressing their passion (sounds like love, doesn’t it?). Bound by a common desire to capture the beauty of both current and classic, their work in Vigan, Paoay, Laoag, Burgos, Pagudpud, and Bangui’s Windmill is architecture, fashion, portraiture, genre and editorial at its finest – in both traditional film and cutting-edge digital photography.

Far from being a case of love being blind (or blind shooting), the collection is the love child of loving eyes struggling to preserve the timeless beauty of a place called Ilocos. “Call us crazy,” one of the 10 quips, “(but) it is by being crazy that this, our most loved photographic quest… our passion, appears.” And loving becomes easy and free when passion reigns.

True, photography is like loving someone – if there’s no passion, pursuit is pointless.

Ilocos is a beauty to behold, a love you want to celebrate time and again. I was taking pictures of Ilocos for the nth time when I remembered the first time I ever laid eyes on her back in 1983, taking shot after shot with my t/rusty Pentax K2. Ilocos never fails to enthrall my insatiable iris, making me love her all the more.

Fall in love with Ilocos at “Foto Yloco” on view at Robinson’s Midtown in Malate until February 21.

I close with the words of Irving Gordon (with his music and Nat King Cole’s vocals in my head from out of the ‘50s):

Unforgettable

That’s what you are

Unforgettable

Though near or far

Like a song of love

that clings to me

How the thought of you does

things to me

Never before has someone

been more

Unforgettable

Rossano Capili (50), signing his name professionally as Rosscapili, is an artist who is a painter, photographer, graphic designer, and digital fine art printmaker, who has held a total of 35 solo exhibitions in these disciplines here and abroad. He is an Executive Council of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (Office of The President) National Committee on Visual Arts; president and creative director of OneWorkshop,Inc. (www.owg.cc, www.studiorosscapili.com,) He conducts workshops and lectures here and abroad on photography and art-making in the present day. He is also a lecturer of the AB Photography class at the De La Salle College of Saint Benilde and TUP Fine Arts; Ani ng Sining Presidential Awardee 2009; Anvil Gold Awardee 2008 and 2009; Quill Awardee 2009 and PATA Gold Awardee 2008 on Travel Photojournalism in Hyderabad India; e-mail rosscapili@yahoo.com.