Photography in the Philippines
The pioneers of photography in the Philippines were
Spanish era
Commercial photography
The beginnings of photography in the Philippines date back to the 1840s with two preserved daguerreotypes, one of
Landscape photography
The first evidence of the use of photography in the Philippine panorama as the basis for illustrations in printed publications, such as magazines and travel guides, was in the 1875 book by
News, history and nature through cameras
Provincial and missionary life
Everyday life of early Filipinos and foreign missionaries were epitomized in the Provincia de Cagayan (Cagayan Province), an album lodged at Madrid's Museo Nacional de Antropología (National Museum of Anthropology). The album, believed to have been published between 1874 and 1880, documented 19th century tobacco farming methods in Luzon. There were also photographs depicting local customs, pastimes and traditions.[1]
Despite the difficulty in imposing Spanish dominion over Islamic
Natural disasters
Photography in 19th century Philippines also preserved visual records of the callous living conditions in the tropics. The existence of cameras and photographers, both professionals and amateurs, confirmed the reality of natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, landslides, forest fires, floods, typhoons and tornadoes in the Philippines. The aftermath of an 1863 earthquake was witnessed and recorded by Martinez Hébert, a photographer of the Spanish Royal Household, while the devastation caused by the seismic activities that occurred on July 14, 18, 20 and 22, 1880 were captured by the lenses of the Dutch photographer Francisco Van Camp.[1]
Industrialization
Status of public works in the Philippines were catalogued in the 1887 album, Obras del Puerto de Manila (Works of Manila Harbor) and in an 1896 book published by the Board of Manila Harbor. Operational and under-construction lighthouses spanning the years 1889–1893 in the Philippines were also catalogued in the Obras públicas: Faros (Public Works: Lighthouses) by Madrid's Archive of the Royal Palace.[1]
Relationship to anthropology
The invention of photographs lessened the need for anthropologists to travel to places such as the Philippines for the sake of their work. Photographs became one of the important secondary sources of anthropologists for their case studies. However, despite of the advantage, this photography business also created the tendency of photographers and the anthropologist themselves to manipulate their pictures and subjects such as employing staged scenes for scientific ends. Another accompanying problem of this “manipulation” would be the installation of stereotype human beings into the psyche of Western scientific groups. And also the tendency to produce “
First Filipino photographer
One of the first photographers of
American era
The Thomasites
After the Spanish–American War, the Philippines was ceded to the
Categories
Photography in the Philippines during American colonialism in the country produced two categories of photographic genre: the colonial American-centered photography and Filipino-centered photography:[4]
Colonial American-centered images
In this category, photographs taken by Americans of Filipinos portrayed Filipino men and women and sceneries or backgrounds as a part of scientific or anthropological study or as a stimulator of curiosity.
The 1900s also became the source of some of the first
Filipino-centered photography
Filipinos during the American era who were given the opportunity to “control their appearance” in front of cameras of formal picture-taking studios presented a “media persona” that was distinguishably different from what were presented in images taken by Americans who have scientific and anthropological aims. During these personal and formal photographic moments, Filipino women were able to demonstrate female “virtue and refinement” by being garbed in fashionable and “religious” garments of the time; while the Igorot people were given that chance to show off their status and prestige by standing straight, firm, and wearing their tribal coats and hand-held canes.[4]
Filipino life, culture, and identity through images
As a tool for presenting Philippine culture and identity, photography revealed that Filipinos during the Spanish period and American colonialism had a distinct society of their own.[4] During the late 1800s, both elite Spanish and Filipino members of Philippine society employed photographs as recorders of social lifestyle.[5] Before American colonialism took hold of the Philippine Islands, an American photographer shot photos of the people and life in the City of Manila in 1886. Without the influence of American colonialistic attitude, the photographer was able to record the actual and uncontrolled street life of Filipino people living in the city, including cleanly dressed vendors with “religious necklaces” and a young Filipino lad collecting water from a public pump. The photographer's images presented Filipinos exuding natural grace and self-confidence in front of his camera, without any sign of being intimidated by the photograph taker's technological instrument.[8]
In the 1930s, photography was incorporated it by Filipinos to become an “indigenized” part of Philippine culture and society. Examples of this cultural incorporation include photographing of weddings, wakes, portraits of Filipino beauty pageant queens, politicians, cult leaders, and popular Philippine sceneries and panorama. From 1935 to 1941 – the Philippine Commonwealth period – Filipino politicians utilized photography as a means for propaganda and election agenda. Later on, the boom in Philippine photography, resulted to photographic albums bound and collected by Filipino families that preserved recorded baptisms, school life, family reunions, social gatherings and outings,
The Filipinos developed their own unique character of posing in front of the camera. Because they are sensitive and self-conscious to how they should present and portray themselves through photographs, Filipino individuals or groups are not passive posers. Photographically, they are able to project a “certain style (…) or aspect” of themselves. In viewing images, Filipinos find “layers of meaning about the (…) character and persona” of the subject, or subjects, caught in the photograph.[4]
See also
- Philippine history
- PinoyCentric
- Legal issues surrounding photography in the Philippines
- Photography and the law#Philippines
- Freedom of panorama in the Philippines
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Guardiola, Juan. The Philippine Imaginary, Sociedad Española de Acción Cultural en el Exterior (SEACEX), Casa Asia and Seacex.es (undated) Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved on: August 11, 2007
- ^ Juan Guardiola, The Colonial Imaginary, pg 212
- ^ Anglemyer, Philinda Parsons Rand, 1876-1972. Papers, 1901-1909: A Finding Aid, Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America Archived 2006-09-02 at the Wayback Machine, Call No. 86-M74--86-M130, Repository: Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute; These papers of Philinda Parsons (Rand) Anglemyer were given to the Schlesinger Library by her daughters, Katharine and Mary Anglemyer, in May and July 1986), Radcliffe College, July 1986 Archived 2012-05-09 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved on: August 11, 2007
- ^ a b c d e f g h i In Their Own Image: Filipinos as They Saw Themselves, digicoll.library.wisc.edu
- ^ a b c d An American "Raj": The Philippines as Stage for Colonial Grandeur, digicoll.library.wisc.edu
- ^ "Lesser Breeds": America Encounters Filipino Hill Tribes, digicoll.library.wisc.edu
- ^ Filipinos at the St. Louis World's Fair, 1904, digicoll.library.wisc.edu
- ^ "White Man's Burden": Uplifting Filipinos Through Education and Without Empire: American Views of Filipinos Before Colonial Rule, digicoll.library.wisc.edu
External links
- Timeline: History of Photography in the Philippines (1840-Present), www.google.com
- Philippine portraits (Spanish era) Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine at Seacex.es
- Colonial Philippines photographs (Spanish era) Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine at Seacex.es
- Philippine panorama photographs (Spanish era) at Seacex.es)
- Manila and disaster photographs (Spanish era) at Seacex.es)
- Buildings and other views (Spanish era) at Seacex.es
- Provincial life images (Spanish era) at Seacex.es
- Mindanao images (Spanish era) at Seacex.es
- Anthropology-related images (Spanish era) Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine at Seacex.es
- Structures, interiors and people (Spanish era) at Seacex.es
- Philippine schools images (Spanish era) at Seacex.es
- Individual and group portraits (Spanish era) at Seacex.es
- More panoramas and portraits (Spanish era) Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine at Seacex.es
- Philippine revolution images (Spanish era) at Seacex.es
- 1898 in pictures (Spanish era) at Seacex.es