Beauty in the “extraordinary ordinary”

In our journey through life, there are lull moments in between our travelings and our waitings before we finally reach the “end of our road.” To UNDULL and make full LULL moments, I have spent those times taking snapshots of the “extraordinary ordinary” objects and subjects that caught my attention…

Various photos—Central Visayas

I love photography. My last still camera was a Nikon. But it melted away when our house burned down in 1998 eating up almost everything that I collected—including my researches on Vicente Salumbides, second to Jose Nepomuceno as Filipino pioneer silent movie filmmaker in the 20s. If there was anything lamentable re the loss, it was not losing our house nor our appliances which we accumulated through the years but the lost of hundreds, probably thousands of photographs for my film research works. In fact, I had just started preparing for my docu film work on Salumbides then. We also greatly lost the historical, handwritten notes of my brother Dr. Isagani R. Medina which halted whatever we were then working on for eventual publication; our family photos including prewar photos of my family in Corregidor Island and my children’s photos in Mauritius Island; my snapshots in India as film student of the Film and Television Institute of India and those that we printed at the UP Film Center where I was then working. We used to hold black and white photo exhibitions at the AS lobby in front of Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater. We were developing the negatives ourselves and printing them in the improvised darkroom at Rm. 209, where the UP Film Center humbly started. That place is now being occupied by the UP CSSP Office.

Photos at Shangrila Plaza Area, Mandaluyong; Dao Diamond Hotel, Bohol; Siquijor Island, Deaf Inc, Palawan; Cavite; Mall of Asia and UP Diliman

I never replaced my Nikon camera. Now I just use the still digital photo shot of my Panasonic video handycam…It has only 3.1 megapixels. Nonetheless, it can capture moments at times very important, of people and ordinary objects which catch my attention. The patterns, colors, the play of light and shadows, the texture, shapes and forms that I see—usually appear so beautiful and good when properly composed that I can’t help but be enraptured even by the seemingly senseless, useless of objects and meaningless subjects. Capturing them is automatic when I feel joy in my heart the moment I aim the camera at my subject and see the beauty beyond what is. Framing is in itself calling for creative decision, an act seemingly and exaggeratedly maybe, as crucial as the decision we make of life.

Nature for me provides the most wonderful of patterns and colors unimaginable! In this page are some of the shots that I took as I hop from island to island, provinces to provinces to show my film on autism, now on Deaf. A few were shot in Metro-Manila.

In a film where places as far as Negros Oriental, Bohol, Palawan and Zamboanga are in my little-budgeted film, production value appear high. But make no mistake about it. I only managed to include them, as in my SO film because I had the chance of showing Alyana in those places. To make fulll use of my time, I went around looking for Deaf to interview while Alyana which is nearly two hours long was showing. Now that SO has finished, I look for CPs for my next film…and yes, going around finding beauty in the extraordinary ordinary.

(For more photos on Olang Arts Park, click the mother page – FILM SHOW RESPITE to see its brochure)

Advertisement