Singapore’s Esplanade: a different kind of durian

The comparison is inescapable. From a distance, Singapore’s Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay resembles a pair of durian, the fruit that is distinctive not just for its taste (buttery) and smell (noisome) but also for its thorns.


the Esplanade by the Singapore River



a closer look of one half of the Esplanade


Consciously conceived by Singapore as an edifice of world note, this center for cultural and arts shelters a concert hall, a theatre, studios, galleries, a public library and of course the inescapable mall.


the pair of thorny domes



the roofscape at daylight


The design has its share of critics. When officially opened in October 2002, the initial reception was mixed. The aluminum sunshades which cover the two domes elicited association with eyes of a giant fruit fly, two sliced microphones, a couple of cheese graters, fencing masks or even a pair of copulating aardvarks.


the “durian”’s metallic surface during sunset


Perhaps 7 years is not yet sufficient a time for the Esplanade to be indubitably acclaimed as a modern architectural wonder. But for anyone who has seen the Esplanade up close, it certainly is no eyesore anymore.


cleaning the thorns is never easy

Hong Kong icons in black and white

Mushrooming as if concrete and steel were organic on land, the skyscrapers of Hong Kong are in a density and vertical elevation difficult to match in Asia. In Hong Kong central alone, the public can rubberneck no end.


the skyscrapers of Hong Kong Central, as viewed form Chater Park, Hong Kong, China


The statistics speak for themselves. In the list of the 100 tallest building in the world, the metropolis of 7 million people can boast of 11, versus Shanghai (10) and New York (8).


the instantly recognizeable Bank of China Tower which is about 367m (1,205 ft) tall


In another survey, Hong Kong has 43 buildings over 200 metres tall, 30 of which only rose in the last 10 years.


2IFC or Two International Finance Centre, Hong Kong is 415 m or 1,362 ft 88 tall


With so many highrises, the city skyline then is spectacular at any day or time, whether in color or in black and white.

The Monastics of Angkor Wat

Cambodia is the Kingdom of the Khmers, they who built Angkor, a city of stone temples and edifices so vast. Reputedly covering more than 1,000 square miles, Angkor is 20 times larger than the next biggest preindustrial city of Tikal in Mayan Guatemala. The most famous Angkor monument is the palatial complex known as the Angkor Wat. It is BIG. The outer walls encloses more than 82 hectares of land.


phototip: Rain can be your friend. It can provide a mysterious ambience, especially if the streaks are captured by fast shutter speed.
f/5.6, 0.004s, 155mm, ISO 100, -1/3EV, cropped
The west gate of Angkor Wat, as taken from the topmost level of the central temple,Siem Reap, Cambodia


What struck me most was the humanistic strand that helped keep Angkor Wat alive today: the religious. In all its 850 years of existence, the temple has never been abandoned, really. Ascribing its discovery to a Portuguese monk or a French explorer is a Westernized view, romanticized but distorted. While the temple fell into neglect after the 16th century, the temple has never really been empty. It has always enjoyed a throng, if not an encampment of Buddhist monks and nuns.


phototip: ….
f/5.6, 0.008s, 55mm, ISO 200, -1/3EV, cropped
Monks at Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia


Without argument, monks and nuns are mendicants. They live from the benevolence of patrons. Begging for their daily needs, they do not work for their very sustenance in our accepted conventional sense. Idealized their roles may be, there is some dissent against their dependence on alms in Cambodia and probably in other Buddhist societies as well. The question begs: how could they remain “idle” amidst the growing poverty of the very society they mean to serve?


phototip: Most portraits become more effective if you get the subject look at you. In my case, the nun was tidying up the altar. I composed the shot while her back was away from me. I knew that soon she would turn. She did.
f/4.5 , 0.067s, 33mm, ISO 800, -1/3EV
A shrine at the uppermost central shrine of the Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia


History provides the answer. Monks and nun are merely following norms developed along the centuries. Societies in civilizations as old as the Khmers were divided into classes. Each class had a role to fulfill. Without divisions that were almost so rigid to prevent someone from moving between classes, there would have been chaos. In a practical sense, artistic achievements, like that of the majesty of Angkor, would not have been reached as well.


phototip: Tight shots makes the message clearer.
f/5.6. 0.02s, 55mm, ISO 800, -1/3EV, cropped
A monk offering supplications at the central sanctuary tower of Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Art cannot prosper in a vacuum. Only societies that have a great level of surfeit of food and riches would have the extravagance to commit sections of their populations to doggedly sole-minded pursuits like music, dance, painting and architecture. The Khmers did. How else could the grand designs materialize if the artists were not sheltered and allowed to do what they did without fear of hunger and want? By the same rationale, there rose a section of the society given the time and space to enlighten and spiritually “sustain” life- the monastics.


phototip: Watch out for stillness against speed. I set up a tripod at a doorway, waited for the nun to freeze in a prayer, while tourists passed by. The exposure of 1.6 seconds created the colored blur.
f/5.6 , 1.6s, 55mm, ISO 100, +1/3EV, cropped
at the central uppermost temple of the Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia


Today, Buddhist monks and nuns in Cambodia continue the tradition of alm-seeking and live only if the public sticks to the convention of support. I found out that there are rules governing this sustenance. For starters, the monks can only seek what are existential: food, clothing, shelter and medicine. All else are considered trivial.


phototip: White stands bold even if the subject is in a dark corner, especially when contrasted against the colored ornaments.
f/5.6, 0.01s, 49mm, ISO 400, uncropped
A nun at the Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia

By leading a life of an ascetic, monks and nuns are examples to the masses of what can be renounced in life. By freely choosing to lead simply, they remind the people that enlightenment can only be achieved by giving up material things. That is how Buddhism’s concept of nirvana can be attained. I too am reminded of the biblical line of “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).


phototip: The Angkor Wat’s central temple is notorious for the steep staircase. Don’t take unnecessary risk in getting the shot you like. I took the photo at the landing before I descended the steep stairs, with the camera safely tucked inside a padded and secured bag.
f/5.6, 0.008s, 37mm, ISO 100, -1/3EV, uncropped
The difficult descent from the uppermost central shrine of the Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia

The normal title of "nun" is conferred to female monastics who may be considered equal to male ascetics. These ladies often wear robes of white or gray, as opposed to the saffron sported by the monks. Monks and nuns are expected to be totally celibate and generally avoid physical contact with the opposite sex.


phototip: Watch out for expressions that convey strong emotions and tell a story.
f/16, 0.2s, 55mm, ISO 400, -1/3EV, uncropped
A Buddhist nun and at a shrine in the uppermost central temple of the Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia


Meditation is associated with the monastics. Silence accompanies simplicity. Monks and nuns are considered to be in a different plane, having lived the “inner world”. People may chose to ignore them sometimes but ultimately, their presence fills in a need that no one else can.


phototip: Strong backlight creates bold shadows that can be an effective background for incense smoke.
f/5.6, 0.008s,55mm, ISO 800,-1/3EV, uncropped
Meditation scene in the uppermost central temple of the Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Carcar’s Festival of Lights

continued from Stories and Photos of Carcar

For the second year in a row, the Carcar Heritage Conservation Society organized the unique Festival of Lights on November 25, 2007, the eve of the feastday of the city’s patron saint, St. Catherine of Alexandria. Headlining the celebration were more than 100 dancers from the homegrown St. Catherine College, wearing bright colorful Filipiniana costumes. The Festival was so much fun, especially for photography enthusiasts like me.

The Presentation of the Carrozas to the Church
The Festival started around 4:30PM when the four carros featuring tableaux of St. Catherine were brought to the Church. The dancers who lined up Sta Catalina Street performed a specially choreographed dance while the cortege passed by them. The choice of Sta Catalina Street was obvious. The thoroughfare was the it address during the Hispanic times, as it directly leads to the Church up on the hill. It still hosts most of the 19th century manors. Picturesque would be an appropriate description.


phototip: Filipinos generally love to be photographed. You can cut in and take photos in the middle of the road. Just don’t block the performers.
f/16, 0.05s, 18mm, ISO 400, +1/3EV, cropped
streetdancing around the carro being brought to the Church, Sta Catalina Street, Carcar City, Cebu, the Philippines

Once at the church grounds, the processional carrozas were blessed by the priest and the parishioners slowly assembled in preparation for the dusk procession. The procession started at about 6PM, when it was already dark, so the hundreds of followers had to use candles for illumination.

The Festival of Lights: Processional Passage

We could have waited at any point in Sta Catalina Street but we settled across the Balay na Tisa as our host Gibbster was asked by the family to document the festival there. Fortuitous I should say!

By 6:45PM, just when we could distinctly hear the rumbling of the brass band leading the procession, the dancers, who were already given hand torches and salakot or conical leaf hats fitted with a kerosene lamp, started to dance, illuminating the road with a drama of fluttering lights. A spectacle was unfolding.


phototip: Couple relatively long exposures with the 2nd curtain function for “frozen” moments. Movement lines shall still come out but the second flash freezes the action of the subject.
f/4, 0.8s, 21mm, ISO 800, slightly cropped
dancers with lanterns lining up the streets during the evening procession at the Street of Sta Catalina, Carcar City, Cebu, the Philippines


The people joining the procession was thick. I am not good in estimating crowds but let’s say it took about 10 minutes for the 4 carrozas and the people to pass by us, without interruption. All throughout the parade, the dancers swayed and danced in place at the side of the road. Being a solemn religious observance, the dance especially created by renowned choreographer Val San Diego who happens to be the president of the Carcar Heritage Conservation Society, was not jumpy but rhythmic, almost reverent.


phototip: Have a sense of humor! Just when I finally found a good time to compose a long exposure shot of the candlelight procession, a videographer appeared and stayed in the middle of the road. There goes the shot.
f/6.3, 15s, 18mm, ISO 100, uncropped
the evening procession at the Street of Sta Catalina, Carcar City, Cebu, the Philippines

Sidelights
The celebration of lights moved with the carrozas so when the procession passed, the dancing eventually came to a halt. The dancers still remained in place though so the lull was perfect opportunity to capture photographic sidelights. Dancers, already in a giddy mood – tired, but never lacking of enthusiasm – were willing posers.


phototip: Flash photography can sometimes be too harsh on faces, especially in low light conditions. Instead, ask your subjects to keep still. This pair did that for me, for 2 seconds!
f/4.5, 2.0s, 27mm, ISO 200, slightly cropped
at the Street of Sta Catalina, Carcar City, Cebu, the Philippines

Returning the Icons
Always, the ultimate destination of any procession is the Church. However, the carrozas and icons are not owned by the Church so after the procession, they would be brought back to the owners. Of the four tableaux – the Emperor’s marriage proposal, the Broken Wheel, the Beheading of St. Catherine and the Ascension to Mt Sinai with the angels – the latter features the oldest and the most treasured antique image of Sta Catalina owned by the family in the Balay na Tisa. By design, the culmination of the Festival of Lights was in front of the house, in greeting of the return of the Sta Catalina image that will be put in safekeeping for another year. The climax was a dance performance of joyous choreography, befitting the return of a queen.

Inasmuch as I wanted to, I could not find a suitably near but elevated vantage point overlooking the Balay na Tisa to capture the frenzy of the dance. Me and my tripod had be on the streets, where the dancers were and that was a great challenge. I had to go manual with the camera settings. Quickly, I realized that extending the exposure beyond 10s resulted to overexposure as the house was too white and brightly lit. I had to narrow the aperture to f/10 to achieve a shutter speed <10s. Still, my initial shots came out with too much indistinguishable ghostly blur as the dancers moved too fast. Time was running out and I didn’t have the shot which would feature a clearly lit house, dramatic motion, yet enough clarity to depict the dancers in their fantastic costumes (I want to capture those gas lamps on their heads!). Finally, just when their performance ended, the dancers hovered in place. I finally got the shot below. It is all that I wanted and needed.


phototip: Conceptualize the image you wanted and experiment.
f/10, 6.0s, 27mm, ISO 100, uncropped
the Festival of Lights, at the Balay na Tisa, the Street of Sta Catalina, Carcar City, Cebu, the Philippines


Acknowledgments: Our deepest thanks to Gibbs and John Enriquez Ada for the invitation, the grand lunch and dinner at the Rayla ancestral house, and the incredible access to the old world that is Carcar. Daghang salamat!

Stories and Photos from Old Carcar

Preserving the architectural heritage in the Philippines is a struggle in the face of modernity. I have visited my share of towns with a critical mass of old Hispanic houses but none is more impressive than Vigan in Ilocos Sur. It was not declared a UNESCO World Heritage town for nothing. If I would be pressed to shortlist some other towns, I would certainly include Chavayan (Sabtang Island, Batanes), Silay (Negros Occidental), Bantayan (Bantayan Island, Cebu) and Carcar (Cebu).

It is in this context that I was excited when Gibbster and John, both lumad Carcaranon (true blue natives of Carcar) invited me, my wife Dia, Tet and Jenny to witness and document Carcar’s fiesta. We could not come on November 25, the kahulugan or actual feast day when the Kabkaban street mardigras would be held. Instead, we chose to visit on the eve or bisperas, November 24, which is a bigger deal for me as the town would be holding the traditional candlelight procession. This year, the Carcar Heritage Conservation Society is sponsoring a Festival of Lights, a choreographed street dancing around the 4 processional tableaux. Think of flaming handtorches and lamps on salakots (native leaf hats). As Gibbster is a member of the Carcar Heritage Conservation Society, the youngest in fact, he definitely can usher us into old houses that otherwise will remain off limits to strangers. He did that and more.

Sta Catalina
The city of Carcar honors St. Catherine of Alexandria (ca 287-305 AD), or Sta. Catalina in the vernacular, she who was legendarily tortured and beheaded for her faith. As oral accounts go, the image first used in the fiesta procession (before the war?) was the ivory image of the Valencias (below); but when the Noels gained political and financial prominence, their image of the Sta Catalina was bestowed the honor and the Valencia icon was hidden for safekeeping. By a twist of fate, a Valencia heir later on married a Noel and in the late 1990s, the tradition of using the Valencia icon in the town procession was restored.


phototip: Sometimes background can be distracting. I took the opportunity of photographing the antique ivory image of the Valencia family while it was sheltered under a blue tarp inside the Osmeña-Valencia family compound, while waiting to be paraded in the street.
f/5/6, 0.008s, 170mm, ISO 400, +1/3EV, uncropped
at the Balay na Tisa, the Ancestral House of the Sarmientos (Osmeña-Valencia), Carcar City, Cebu


This is not to say that the Noel image is no less revered. Unlike the youthful virgin-like beauty of the Valencia image, the life-sized Noel Sta Catalina has a more mature and knowledgeable countenance. It still is honored and is reserved a prominent altar at the left transept inside the Church of Carcar.


phototip: Add a human element when photographing religious iconography.
f/5/6, 0.04s, 41mm, ISO 1600, +2/3EV, slightly cropped
student volunteers before the antique Sta Catalina image owned by the Noel family honored inside the Church of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Carcar City, Cebu, the Philippines


Expression of faith
Fiestas are a time of reuniting with friends and family, of bringing out the best family porcelain and home-cooked recipes, but most of all, of paying homage to the patron saint. The essence of fiesta is faith so I always would try to capture prayer in its communal and personal form, whether of people jostling inside the church or of visitors offering candles, oftentimes accompanied by the now-famous sinulog dance. I chose to represent the solemn part of the fiesta celebration with a closeup shot of a hand offering candles outside the church. Petitions here are often said in silence.


phototip: Simplify, simplify, simplify.
f/5.6, 0.002s, 255mm, ISO 200, uncropped
at the communal candle offertory outside the Church of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Carcar City, Cebu, the Philippines


Houses of Heritage
According to the Carcar Heritage Society, there are close to 50 houses that were built in the mid-1800s to the early 1900s. With such a unique setting therefore, Carcar was proclaimed a heritage town in 2005 by the province. Numerous are the grand buildings in Carcar, from the filigreed dispensary to St. Catherine College to the Sato Mansion, where Leon Kilat (General Pantaleon Villegas), the famous revolutionary, was killed by Spanish loyalists in 1898. On a personal note, my father’s older sister married an Avila in Valladolid, Carcar who inherited an opulent ancestral house complete with a fountain, a mini-piazza with imported statues and Italian glass windows although the manor has sadly fallen in disrepair, as have most houses in Carcar. With so little time, we have to limit our photographic tour in Carcar to just about two houses, the Balay na Tisa of the Sarmientos/Osmeña-Valencia and the Dakung Balay (the Big House) of the Noels.

Balay na Tisa
The house lays claim as the oldest in Carcar and the only one with the extant original tisa or clay tiled roof. It has a marker which dates the construction of the house to February 2, 1859.


phototip: Frame plain objects. I used the Christmas decors hanging from the ceiling to frame the flat marker to add visual interest.
f/5.6, 10.01s, 44mm, ISO 1600, -1/3EV, uncropped
construction marker of the Balay na Tisa, the Sarmiento ancestral house, Sta Catalina St, Carcar City, the Philippines

Based on oral accounts and from what I gathered in the internet, the house was built by Don Roman Sarmiento and Doña Ana Canarias. In Philippine society, the appellations Don and Dona refer not just to the literal Mr. and Mrs. but are reserved titles for the old Spanish or mestizo Spanish gentility. Definitely, affluence was to the Sarmientos born. They not only built a house made of bato or stone (specifically coral), they used clay tiles for the roof or tisa.

The couple only had 2 children, both girls. As the elder daughter who married a Urgello died young, the house was bequethed to the younger daughter who married an Osmeña. The Osmeña’s only child, also a daughter, married a Valencia. No wonder then that the house is referred to by many names, the Sarmiento or Valencia or more popularly, the Osmeña-Valencia house.


phototip: Fiesta night scenes are a treat, far more colorful and vibrant. The house is closed in ordinary days and is occupied only by a caretaker. The owners visit the house only on occasions, most specially, the Semana Santa (Holy Week) or the fiesta (Nov 24-25).
f/8.0, 10.0s, 25mm, ISO 100, slightly cropped
the Balay na Tisa, the Sarmiento or the Osmeña-Valencia ancestral house, Sta Catalina St, Carcar City, the Philippines


There is a side spin to the house’s history. In the 1980s, an heir who lived in house, ran into financial trouble, and allegedly sold almost all of the antique appointments. After the house was recovered by other family members, they tried to slowly, painstakingly and silently, buy back their lost heirlooms. No amount of money and influence could recover all the losses but over time, the heirs succeeded in populating the house with vintage, reproduction and antique furnishings, with some recovered originals. I know of an antique dealer in Minglanilla who helped search for the sold items and narrated to me this tale even before I visited the house. But without doubt, the house is now a veritable museum of beautiful porcelain, crystals, silver and woodwork. Not only are the interiors impeccably restored, the decorations are tasteful and unmistakably classy. We left with our mouths all agape.


phototip: Look straight up. I had to kneel to get this shot but the different perspective is rewarding.
f/5.6, 0.013s, 18mm, ISO 1600, -2/3EV
detail of the ceiling in hammered tin that is probably original to the the Balay na Tisa, the Sarmiento or the Osmeña-Valencia ancestral house, Sta Catalina St, Carcar City, the Philippines


Dakung Balay
If we were floored by the luxury of the Osmeña-Valencia house, we were ushered back in time by the Noel ancestral home. Now the residence of Jerry Martin Alfafara, the PRO of the Carcar Heritage Society and contributing writer to magazines like the Metro Society, the house is huge. Downstairs, there is ample space for parking and commercial warehousing, as the house probably was sometime in the past. Like the Balay na Tisa, the house has a grand wooden staircase which connects the stone-walled ground floor and the wooden second storey structure. The floors upstairs still have the original interspersed planks of what look to me as fine-grained yellow tugas (molave in Tagalog) and dark bayong (tindalo in Tagalog), all varieties of hardwood that are now rare.


phototip: Recreate the atmosphere of the scene. The interior of the house is as somber, if not “haunted” in feel, so I shot a picture in the dark, timed when no one was in view, to depict a sense of desolation.
f/18, 20.0s, 30mm, ISO 100, uncropped
the Noel Ancestral House, Carcar City, Cebu, the Philippines

The furnitures clearly are as old as the house. Most notably, I saw a dining table which features the kalabasa (squash) foot design, indicating that the piece is probably made by Ah Tay, the renowned late 19th century furniture maker from Manila. The four posters of the huge bed also are impressive for they are hand-carved and not mechanically turned, indicating how expensive the bed must have been even during its time. The current dining room is sized like a ballroom and so is the open aired veranda. There are also living quarters behind the traditional old kitchen at the back which appear to be occupied by a family helping out with the upkeep of the house.

While the house foundations and walls are generally intact and solid, a lot of the interiors were consigned to the ravages of time. Take for instance the paint and wallpaper in the living room which were allowed to flake. Decoration was sparse and lighting was dim, adding an eerie atmosphere of mystery in the house. My lady companions certainly were too unnerved to go to the toilet alone, which by the way, was thoroughly modern. For additional old air ambiance, the homeowner’s computer was packed and stored away from view. I saw no radios, phone or television. How‘s that for effect?!


phototip: Experiment with angles when shooting subjects with mirrors. From where I took the picture, the antique Venetian mirror was able to reflect and highlight the patterns of the flaking wallpaper.
f/4.5, 0.013s, 31mm, ISO 1600, -1/3EV
details of the flaking paint and wallpaper, the Noel Ancestral House, Carcar City, Cebu, the Philippines

Part 2: Documenting Carcar’s Festival of Lights