Asean Photography: Picture Perfect – Trail of Lights By Macel Feliciano

December 7, 2017December 7, 2017 Editor 0 Comment Asean Paintings: Picture Perfect - Trail of Lights By Macel Feliciano, Camera Club, Javier Flores, photograph, photographer, photography, Trail of Lights

Sangyaw, Festival of Light (Atty. Javier Flores)

“I love to experiment with the movement and projections of light. The camera can freeze in a single frame, a trail of light representing what once was but can no longer be, something the naked eye could not do,” shares Javier Flores, a lawyer by profession and a graduate of the UP College of Law.

During his pre-law days, he was an associate editor of the Philippine Collegian where he helped supervise all the sections of the paper including the Graphics section. The members included photographers who went on to become award-winning photojournalists. Unfortunately, he wasn’t interested in photography at the time and never asked them to teach him the basics. Everything was manual then, which intimidated him.

Only the desire to document the early years of his son, Marcus, made Javier turn to photography. He saw the camera then as a tool for capturing the moment, freezing it forever in time. “A photograph takes you back in time, to that instant when you took it. When you look at it, everything comes back to you, the gloominess of the clouds that day, or the sky set ablaze by a sunset, or the electricity in the air, or the mucus slowly dripping down your oblivious son’s nose. A photograph is a true time capsule.”

With this burgeoning fascination, he joined Chasing Light, a landscape photography workshop. There he learned to mix the values of ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. He then joined the Camera Club of the Philippines (CCP), the oldest and most prestigious camera club in the country.

“When I joined in 2014, my view of the camera changed altogether. We have monthly competitions to interpret certain themes. I saw each theme as a case. So, I felt like I was trying to solve a problem. Sometimes I was successful, sometimes I am not.”

Javier then started to conceptualize his photographs. Instead of just capturing views, he created images. “I started to think along the lines that photographs are not taken, they are made. You need to imagine the shot before you take it. In law, we call that pre-meditated. If it meant staging a scene, then that is what had to be done. I also do not have the luxury of time. Setting up gives one control over the message. You are not letting the message come to you as a surprise.”

Javier also started treating the camera as not simply an extension of his perception but as a tool of his imagination. “I wanted to go beyond being a witness. Could your eyes capture a trail of light? Could your eyes freeze time at that instance when a jumping boy is about to hit the water? No, they cannot, but your camera surely can.”

His shots have a surreal mood to them, with an ethereal and magical quality. “I am drawn to the other-worldly, the alter-reality, so I try to recreate that in my shots. That is why I end up staging some of my photographs, or using photo manipulation to flesh out a concept.”

Javier’s hard work shines through in his creations. In the first year he joined CCP, he earned the coveted Master Photographer award. He has consistently done podium finishes and this year, he earned second place in the Master Cup race.

Some may consider Javier as an accomplished photographer, but he concedes that he still has a long ways to go. He acknowledges that he can do what he does best not only because of his own skill and hard work but because of the people who have inspired and helped him along the way.

“Photography should be about fleshing out a narrative. If it means drawing with light, I’d like to think it is that and more: it is also about incorporating layers of meaning in one frame. I am working to get to that part of my craft. I am not there yet. I am happy that I have met people along the way who have been generous with their viewpoints,” he says.

Javier humbly acknowledges that there is truly nothing new under the sun. But he’s content that he’s able to bring his concepts to life and keep on improving.

“As a visual artist, it would be hubris to believe that I could come up with something truly original. To be honest, I would like to keep coming up with work that would be derivatives of those who have come before me but stamped with a vision that is mine. It is enough that I expand the boundary of what I know and that I am happy with the shots I make at the moment they were made.”

An effective photograph for Javier is one where both skill and passion are evident. “It is technically correct while evoking emotion from the viewer; it has to be a marriage between those two standards. Photography rules are easy to learn. What is challenging is looking for that detail that will make the photo stand out or hit the viewer’s gut. Since the viewer would be a product of his own prejudices over time, chances are a photo would hit a viewer differently as well. So you see, coming up with an effective photograph may not be as easy as it sounds.”

Javier uses photography as a means of presenting reality and to share how he views it. “I want to put out photos that do not merely take in and exhibit the beauty of what we perceive. I want to create. I want to disturb. That is the function of photography as an art form, not merely to capture the essence of what is real, but to put out your own version of truth.”