WHAT IS PHOTOGRAPHY?
- Photography was the most suitable visual form to reflect the changing face of society.
- It emerged as the visual figuration of social order that made representation and subjectivity the cornerstone of its scientific, political and economic activities with its ability to capture unlimited scope that includes diverse subjects, events and situations.
- The word Photography means 'drawing with light', which derives from the Greek photo, meaning light and graph, meaning to draw
- Photography is the process of recording an image – a photograph – on light sensitive film or, in the case of digital photography, via a digital electronic or magnetic memory.
Background on philippine photography
- After the discovery of the daguerreotype in 1839, the Spaniards were the first ones to introduce photography to the Philippines dating back to 1841. During that year, Don Sinibaldo de Mas arrived in the Philippines as a government diplomat for the Spanish King. He was tasked to record conditions in the colony and to relay that information back to Spain. He brought the daguerreotype with him from Spain to the Philippines. He was recorded to have taken photographs in the Philippines but unfortunately, none of it has been found.
- Indegena de clasa rica (Mestiza Sangley-Filipina) is one of the oldest portrait photographs recorded in Filipino history dating back to 1875, which was photographed by a Dutch photographer named Francisco van Camp
- Capturing a woman of both Spanish and Filipino ethnicity symbolizes one of the main functions of photography in that setting; it was used to document the Spanish influence on the Filipino population.
- In 1896, the Filipinos began to rebel against the Spaniards, culminating to the Philippine Revolution. It was in this revolution that photography was utilized in an entirely different approach. Instead of being a one sided instrument for the Spaniards, the Filipinos began to use photography to fuel their own point of view.
- When General Emilio Aguinaldo was exiled, photographer Manuel Arias Rodriguez was able to capture him in his dignified general uniform. This photograph became widely popular among the Filipino rebels and acted as inspiration.
- Another inspiration to the Filipinos is Jose Rizal, who later became the country’s national hero. He wrote several books that exposed the crimes of the Spaniards which pushed the Filipino rebels over the edge. He was then executed on December 30, 1896. Prior to his death, Manuel Arias Rodriguez was able to capture a photograph of the scene. Just like the photo of Emilio Aguinaldo, photographs of Jose Rizal prior to his death were used by the Filipinos for the revolution.