World famous Magnum Photographer Eli Reed returned to Dumaguete last week to handle a week-long course, dubbed as the South Pacific Photo Workshop held last August 5-11 at Foundation University.
Multi-awarded photographers Luis Sinco and Armando Arorizo of Los Angeles, USA, spearheaded the event which was participated by some 15 local and international photojournalists.
Field trainings in photography were instituted in different scenic spots in Dumaguete where the participants got to take pictures of the bustling public market, the Rizal boulevard, and downtown areas. Reed and his crew went beyond aiming their cameras at the main city and captured the outskirts and rural places like the Tambobo Bay in Siaton, the farms in Tanjay and Amlan, and Pulangbato in Valencia.
“There is something in us that we need to discover. Every situation is always a picture,” Reed would tell his students.
Juliet Gimenez, who is now in her junior year at FU, proudly described the workshop as a blissful experience. “I felt very happy and fortunate to be given the opportunity to participate in it and be with those great people. Eli Reed is a very knowledgeable man. He’s full of wisdom,” Gimenez narrated. She added that the workshop has increased her skills as well as heightened her appreciation of photography. “They would really sit by you to teach you how. I’ve never thought I could take such great pictures. ‘Something’ in my shots contains depth and tells a story,” she said.
For Luis Sinco, the main purpose of the workshop was basically to re-discover Dumaguete. Sinco, who was born in Dumaguete and had lived here with his family, enticed the photojournalists to come to this native town and make it an object of their craft.
Indeed, the shots they have taken were plainly captivating. Ruby Rubinstein, one of Reed’s colleagues who joined the workshop, explained in an interview that the best shots are those that get hold of people’s emotion and make them “want to be in that place” in the picture. (Angela Bacang)
