oNE LIFE

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               COMPARE AND CONTRAST by: Willy Marbella

How do you deal with children who stare death in the eye instead of rays of hope and life? How do you look them in the eye and tell them everything will be alright? How do you rid yourself of the gnawing guilt that they will never live the life that you have enjoyed? That it will never be the same for them?

Loyola’s images hit you like a ton of bricks as his subjects look straight in your eyes, pleading? questioning? beseeching? for answers that will never come. His chosen rendition of black and white only heightens the tension of each image. Bereft of any color, it seems this is the life these children have been condemned to live. But despite his subjects’ conditions, Loyola has not forgotten how to manipulate black and white photography and use it to his advantage. In “Bless Him,” this child, dead center in the image in a wheelchair with two dextrose bottle hanging overhead demonstrates Loyola’s capacity for contrast and composition. The two stark white dextrose bottles against the black background with a tube snaking down the center, makes for a compelling study for these two major art elements. It is both a treat for the man on the street in terms of the message it sends and an indulgence of the photo enthusiast who will have the discernment for a beautifully crafted black and white image.

Using the same subject, Loyola takes a shot from a bird’s eye view, with the wheelchair and floor line on the diagonal against the parallel lines of the frame. The mix of black and white contrasts with each other is no less amazing. But the placement of the subject’s eyes, dead center, forces the viewer to get lost in the gaze of the subject as his non-judgemental look makes one take stock of one’s life in contrast to this child’s own. There is a certain acceptance, maybe-resignation, to his condition. This gets the viewer to examine his very own circumstance and just like the image, compare and contrast his life with this child.
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Probably the most poignant image is of a child, with thinning hair and mask looking out a window. A million and one stories told by this image. Is the child thinking of his/her past, future that will never be, or just the present that is so fleeting? The blurred background and the white frame at the right side just make it more intense. These elements push the image to the foreground, again asking the viewer to feel everything that the child is feeling. It forces one to be both empathetic and sympathetic to the child, and realize and question life’s inequity. Are we to be thankful we are not in his/her shoes? Or do we feel pain for him/her whose condition we will never understand? What is s/he thinking of? What is s/he wishing for? What is s/he hoping for? This is the power of this photograph. Stories that can only be conjured, but never realized.
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A deeper perspective. How do we gain this? Is it only when one’s life is threatened that we gain a deeper understanding of life? Is it only when faced with life’s uncertainty do we stop and think what this is all about? Do we need semioticians, philosophers, and religious people to tell us the what, who, and why’s of life? Indeed the magic of Loyola’s images is that they force us to think about our own lives and its relation with others. But this is achieved only by his mastery in framing, composition, texture, and all the other visible elements in his images that gives us a deeper perspective to life’s invisible dogmas.

INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD - Philippines / Family of man

LA-based Pinoy wins int'l photography award for park photoPublished July 4, 2016 2:34pm
By RUSTON BANAL A US-based Filipino photographer received the Family of Man Photographer of the Year Award 2016 given by International Photography Awards Philippines, the Philippine leg of the LA-based International Photography Awards (IPA).  Edwin Loyola bagged the prestigious award among 1,500 entries from Filipinos all over the world, becoming the first to win in this category.  Loyola's winning entry, "Forever," was taken in a Maryland park while he was waiting for his son. For it, he used a converted infrared camera.

The Family of Man competition is inspired by Edward Steichen who, in 1939, was given the assignment to curate a show for the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

While performing his duty, Steichen asked 30 photographers—including Cartier Bresson, Eugene Smith, and Dorothea Lange—to document the common links of humanity worldwide.  

Steichen asked the photographers to photograph the commonalities of Birth, Childhood, Love, marriage, and Death, which are the basic themes of the IPA competition.
The photographic documentation for this exhibition became the biggest-selling photography book in the history of photography.

Loyola, who has been living the US for a decade now, is a professional photographer who had already won numerous awards abroad. It is the first time he joined the IPA, taking pride of being the first to win in the category while completely aware of the concept of Steichen's exhibit, which he saw at in the exhibition at Luxemborg.
"This is perhaps, if not the biggest but the most prestigious so far among the competitions I joined and won. Imagine the photographers winning on this. Most of them are world-famous," he said.  

Past IPA winners include Annie Liebovitz, Steve McCurry, Nick Ut, Jerry Uelsmann and Dabvid Hume Kennerly.
Last year, IPA opened its Philippine leg with a mission to promote Filipino photographers in the global platform and award a master Filipino photographer that is more like equivalent to a National Artist award.  IPA co-producer Cat Jimenez said thanks to social media, many talented Filipino photographers are getting discovered and achieving international reputation.
"Being the co-producer of IPA, I am a proud Filipina from Pangasinan and believe in the talents of my motherland," Jimenez said. —KBK, GMA News

                                             - See more at: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/572330/news/pinoyabroad/la-based-pinoy-wins-int-l-photography-award-for-park-photo#sthash.nj0LGQM1.dpuf

INTENTIONAL CAMERA MOVEMENT

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MOVE IT!
Wilfred Marbella

Capturing an image has always carried with it the burden of its static state. In 1912, Giacomo Bella tried to go past that “staticity” of an image when he painted his now iconic “Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash.” With the feet of the dog and its owner in a series of paintings, just what animators do today, Bella was not only “suggesting” the movement, but was actually “portraying” the movement in one fell swoop!

With Edwin Loyola’s technique, he captures this movement in a most deliberate manner. Called - Intentional Camera Movement - Loyola deliberately moves the camera in a particular manner in order to create a most “eerie” image of his subject. Using both static and dynamic subjects, the effects are simply remarkable.

In a series of ducks that he photographed, what Bella was trying to achieve is captured vividly in Loyola’s lens. As the name implies, Loyola will have to move the camera in a certain manner, degree or angle in order to get his shot. But what makes it most impressive is the the fact that each one is perfectly framed despite that fact that the camera was in motion at the time the shot was taken. It goes against the very nature of what and how the camera is and should be used. So, as these fouls take flight, the movement of their wings can distinctively be defined and thus showing the dynamism of the subject.

If he can capture this series of movements to engage his viewers with the vigor of his subject matter, its a totally different effect for his more static subjects. With a penchant for nature, Loyola’s images of trees or grass against the snow-covered ground makes for images that look like drawings by hand. Mysterious, sometimes abstract, the genius behind these works are undeniable. Banal in title, “The Four Seasons,” there is nothing commonplace about the images. Spring is as magical as can be expected with flowers, and brooks, and skies in their glorious colors, while summer is grass and clouds in eternal motion. Fall is somber and mysterious but still delightful with all the different hues while winter is desolate and sullen. Different emotions for 4 different seasons, it could very well be the visualization of Vivaldi’s classic of the same title.

Intentionally moving the camera while taking a photograph doesn’t make much sense. But it is not only the movement of the camera that will create these images. There is the direction - up or down?, left or right? Then there is the speed of the photographers hand while moving the camera, as well as the aperture openings, the shutter’s speed and a host of other technical factors that come into play. But with Edwin Loyola, he’s constant experimentation and innovation have pushed the boundaries of the images he takes. With this new technique “I will never be able to duplicate these images and this is what excites me, this is what compels me”

Acclaimed Filipino lensman got start with a borrowed camera

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By:  Eunice Barbara C. Novio
@inquirerdotnet SAN FRANCISCO — Edwin Loyola, a fresh graduate of computer management, was at the Shangrila Mall on EDSA one day in 1993 and was mesmerized by the images in a photography contest and photo exhibition sponsored by Kodak and the Federation of Philippines Photographers Foundation (FPPF).
Loyola looked at each photo intently, then asked the exhibit organizers about the mechanics of the contest, which was open to everybody. He was already interested in photography, but he had no money to buy even the cheapest camera.
“I went home immediately and borrowed a Fuji 110 camera of a friend. Since I already have images in my mind, I could clearly picture out what I wanted to do,” he recalls. He went to Intramuros and Manila Bay and took photos, had these developed and rushed to Shangrila to submit his photographs.
Surprisingly for a beginner, Loyola won awards for the three entries. Thanks to a borrowed camera he got started on a path that would be paved with photography awards.
The founder of FPPF told him to join a national contest in March 1993, with “Mahal na Araw” as theme. He won his first major prize. With it, he bought a second-hand Minolta x 700 that became his tool in winning many major contests.
A life of contests
He says that his life revolves around joining contests. He also won the Grand Prize and People’s Choice Award 2003 Gift Gate and Fuji “Why Smile” Photo Contest, which earned him a brand new camera and prize money.
“The beauty that surrounds us inspires me to take photos. It is everywhere. We are looking at it. All we have to do is explore it and be aware of its existence,” Loyola says.
He has held one-man shows since 2000 — at De la Salle Gallery, Shangrila Hotel and Philamlife Lobby to name a few. But the apex of his career was winning the grand prize at the Nat Geo Channel Contest in 2004, with the Joy of Childhood as theme. This brought him fame, money and his first trip to the United States and the chance to have a workshop with Joe McNally of Nat Geo.

That same year, he was named Photographer of the Year by the FPPF and simultaneously by The Framed Shots Camera Club.
Before plunging into photography, Loyola was a frustrated painter. His then-day job as a graphic artist for Philam Life sharpened his artistic sense. In 2007, however, his father’s immigration petition for him was approved. He now lives and works as a dialysis technician and a free-lance photographer in Los Angeles.
The Dark Artist
Art critics dubbed Loyola the “Dark Artist” because of his Ansel Adams-inspired affinity for dark tones. His photographs are the products of his desire to create unique images that tell stories that are personal and significant him as an artist.
“Whenever I get to capture that story, my image then becomes close to the viewers’ heart. As a photographer, I do not confine myself in one particular genre of photography. I want my creativity to encompass all types of photography, and that is why I always study the different genres. In this way, I avoid being a complacent and a one-dimensional artist,” he explains.
Loyola wants his images to seem like movie scenes where the viewer could be affected in various ways.
Recently, Loyola won the International Photography Awards (IPA) Philippines LA Leg for his photo “Family of Man.” He will compete with other winners from different countries at the Lucie Awards in New York in October.
“Forever” won the Gold Medal at the International Photography Awards
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“It was always my intention to create a moving story in that winning entry without staging the whole scene. I prepared for it and anticipated all the elements that made up that image. I just waited somewhere in that place until all the necessary elements came through so I may get the shot I wanted. I composed everything according to my vision and set my cameras while waiting for the perfect moment. I used four gears in that shot, a converted IR, a Canon, an Olympus and an iPhone,” Loyola explains his winning entry for IPA.
Uniqueness valued
Loyola believes that many photographers, including Filipinos, come to the US because it is a place that values uniqueness, individuality, originality, creativity and freedom to express one’s artistic vision.
But to be able to be given a shot at the US market, Loyola says a photographer must hurdle the challenges of creating a unique images with a message and establishing a trademark for one’s photos.
Loyola continuously educates new photographers through his Beyond Passion Photography Workshop and his own charity group, Mission: Save Kids with Cancer with partner Zamboanga Medical Hospital in the Philippines. He has published two collections of photo books: The Gifts: Edwin Loyola Collections and the Magic of Available Light: Still Life Calendars (available at Lulu.com).
His advice to Filipino artists is to always believe in their talents and never allow negative criticisms to destroy their artistry but use these to fuel creativity.
“Share your talents. Don’t keep it to yourselves, because you never know how powerful the influence of a deep image is. Be proud being a Filipino; be proud of our Filipino heritage and culture. Make these things a part of your trademark as a photographer,” he says.


Read more: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/141139/141139#ixzz4J9L5oyq6 
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