Framed Thoughts: What kind of Photographer am I?

by Rosy Villasanta-Ibay,
Photographer-in-Momentary-Rebellion

What kind of a photographer am I? What do I want to do? I find it pathetic that until now, I do not have yet that single driven vision of what I want to be as a photographer. For example, Roselyn is very clear in her intent to be a travel photographer; Edwin aims to be instantly recognized for a certain distinctive style that he’s developing; the venerable Aurelio from the Lopez clan is on his way to being another Panchito, a hotshot wedding photographer. What about me?

Over the years, I have discovered that my forte is catching, freezing life as it went at the exact moment with perfect timing. In fact, the very few awards I have garnered were all life in progress that I managed to suspend in eternity with my camera. This kind of photography leans towards photojournalism – but I do not want to be a photo journalist!

I do take decent still life photos. In fact, some of them are more than just decent since a couple or more have won minor awards also. Hmmmmm. I like my travel photos although that’s subjective since we should love our own ahahaha! Of course I am no George Tapan! As they say, marami pa kong bigas na kakainin before I can even get close to what he can do in travel photography. E pano ‘yan, I’m on a no-rice diet right now. Does that mean I have no future in travel photography? tsk tsk It’s getting more and more pathetic.

I like what I call “patience” photography. I like waiting for the most impressive lightning to strike the sky; I can stay virtually motionless and not breathing waiting for that pretty bird to fly; when taking portraits I prefer clicking the shutter repeatedly until I have caught that enchantingly natural smile.

I am an analyst by profession but the irony is, I am having a real hard time evaluating my own photographer self. In the industry that I am in my day job, no matter how big the problem is and how different these are from one another, there is always a formula you can go back to. But humans are way too complex - their thoughts like quicksilver, their emotion fleeting, So that’s already declaring that I am a character ahahaha!

But I guess that’s it! That’s my common denominator – emotion! No matter which aspect of photography, whether candid or set-up, I always want to infuse emotion or something equivalent that would give my photograph its own unique character. It could be a shaft of light lending that uninteresting box of posporo a shroud of mystery or a play of shadows rendering the azucena petals more fragile than usual.

There always has to be a story and behind each play of emotion, every single move, every breath on this earth, is a continuing saga.

Now I’ve lost steam. Tiredness has caught up with me and I don’t have the energy anymore to finish this blog and make a digestible conclusion.

So what kind of a photographer am I? I don’t know. All I know is I like taking photos that look astoundingly beautiful to my eyes. I guess I am not driven to do anything profound with my photography because simply, this is my refuge, my sanctuary. In short, no pressure on this one please.