FEATURE: Depicting the cultural richness of Pampanga through photographs

By Joelyn G. Baluyut

Tuesday 31st of July 2012

It is said that a picture paints a thousand words.

This has driven two Kapampangan photographers to mount a photo exhibit, dubbed “Pampanga: Tastes, Tints and Textures.” The exhibit aimed to promote the rich heritage of Pampanga by showing the beauty of the province's 19 municipalities and three cities.

The exhibit was shown recently at SM City Pampanga in the capital City of San Fernando.

“It was a project advocacy. You can see collage form showcasing the different assets of a specific town or city. When you browse on these pictures, you would sense that ‘Hah, this is how Pampanga looks like,’ or ‘oh, I have never seen this event or tasted this food before.’ The exhibit makes one discover that Pampanga has a lot more to offer than just being the culinary capital of the Philippines,” said Ruston Banal, a renowned Kapampangan photographer and an initiator of the project.

Banal described Pampanga as a province rich in culture and arts, just needed to be uncovered and documented, and eventually promote, as there are a number of places in the locality which are seldomly visited.

“We are not only rich in culture and arts. Pampanga is a ‘living treasure.’ We just have to dig deeper, go to places that are seldomly visited, document the things that we discover first-hand, and try to research to understand a practice – like the art of making food for instance, in which Pampanga is known for. This is what the whole photo exhibit is all about. We documented everything that the province has to offer for about four months, collated everything, and now we present it to the people through images,” Banal explained.

“It is a reflection, a realization and rediscovery of the province whose culture starts to fade away. The Kapampangan language, for instance, now begins to become hardly spoken by many Kapampangans,” he explained.

Banal said just the thought of reaching economic advancement and technology becomes the "in" thing of the present, many people tend to put little value on the richness of their province's history and culture. "This is where the other side of photography or "glamour photography" comes in.

The significance of photography is not merely capturing what is beautiful. More importantly, photography, through the images created, should inspire people. More than glamour, photographs should depict that there is more to life, Banal explained.

Banal lamented that most modern photographers invest a lot on their cameras, studios and models, usually woman, which he said is becoming detrimental to visual artistry as this tends to send the message of exploitation. He clarified that the impression that photographers should exhibit, cultivate and perpetuate is that they see perspectives from within and influence people to develop sense of appreciation of the things that they have and see around.

One notable picture in the exhibit is the Bacolor town’s two types of suman or rice cake - the “banus” and “ebus” which differ from the type of leaf cover used. The "banus" has a longer life span before it will spoil unlike the “ebus” where the suman must be consumed within a day because of the leaf's softer texture. The softer texture of the leaf cover makes the moist penetrate the "lakatan" (glutinous rice) inside, unlike the "banus" which lasts for a couple of days.

Banal explained that a photo of "suman" can be interpreted not merely at face value. The art of delicately tying the "suman" is revealed in the photograph. One photo reveals how meticulous suman makers of Barangay Cabalantian, Bacolor are. Banal said, that by merely glancing at the photo and digging deeper into its masked content, it can be easily drawn that suman makers of Cabalantian have the exceptional skills far compared to other suman makers in other parts of the country, an attestation that suman-making in said barangay has been institutionalized for more than 30 years now.

The pottery industry in Sto. Tomas town, the golden rice fields of Magalang, the half-buried Bacolor church, the new National Cultural Treasure Minalin church, Lubao’s sampaguita, the sizzling sisig of Angeles City, are just some of the displayed images at the photo exhibit.

Banal said they aim for the promotion of culture and expose the artistry of an image, as culture, he explained, “makes who we are, depicts our roots - where we came from, our very own foundation. This is where we can trace our own identity.”

Bruno Tiotuico, another renowned Kapampangan photographer who shares the same vision as that of Banal’s, admits the richness of Pampanga’s arts and culture, but lamented the people’s lack of awareness on these, for them to fully appreciate the vast beauty of the province.

Tiotuico professed that in doing the photo exhibit project, he discovered places in Pampanga which he never had yet visited before, native/local foods he had not yet tasted and events he had been unfamiliar of. But through the project, he has come to know many of these which made him appreciate his province even more. This is the promise of the exhibit, he said.

“We are capturing what is ‘natural’ here, we are in a way enriching our ‘own.’ It is our way of contributing towards the promotion and preservation of the culture and arts of Pampanga. Because if this culture vanish, what will be left in us? Where would we trace our roots?” said Tiotuico.

Banal started photography in the year 2001 using manual then. In the year 2005, he worked as a designer in Pinoy Big Brother Season 2 and Rounin Sci-Fi series at ABS-CBN Channel 2. He also taught photography, art appreciation and visual arts, among others, at the Ateneo De Manila University, Holy Angel University, University of the East College of Fine Arts, and De La Salle-College of St. Benilde. He is a teacher by vocation.

Tiotuico, on the other hand, is currently taking Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. He started photography in the year 2008. He constantly challenges conventional aesthetic norms. Being a product of the hi-tech generation, Tiotuico harnesses the latest technology to bring out his unique concepts.

Banal and Tiotuico revealed that they will bring the exhibit in different localities in Pampanga and in Manila to spring a greater forum for the promotion and preservation of local culture and arts. (WLB/JGB-PIA3)