Luis Liwanag is a seasoned photojournalist who has been visually documenting important events in the country for well over three decades. He began his career in 1981 as a student editorial cartoonist but quickly shifted to the camera. The things he has seen make for a priceless wealth of photographs: In the ‘80s, the Aquino assassination, People Power, the Mendiola Massacre; in the ‘90s, a lot of natural disasters; in the 2000s, a lot of heat in elections.
These days, he is older now and maybe a bit mellowed but photography is still the window through which he sees things. He’s doing workshops now, and he’s having one on street photography this Sunday, May 19, at the Gateway Gallery and the Araneta Center grounds, the theme being Araneta Center as a heritage town.
If you’re an influencer or a blogger looking to improve your photography skills, or you just simply want to put more soul into the pictures you shoot for your own social media pages, Liwanag has a lot to teach you. AO had a quick chat with him to learn more about his craft:
What makes street photography different from other photography disciplines?
A street photographer is similar to a documentary photographer in the choice of subjects but different in approach. A street photographer in my case takes unique and candid moments with a narrative. In street photography there are different ways that a picture tells the story.The viewers are given more space to interpret the narrative or message of the story.They are allowed to maker their own conclusions.
What skills will you be teaching at the workshop?
I will teach everything from basic technical foundation to how to see and feel from your mind, heart and vision and align them to reach the point of squeezing the shutter button. You have to extract your imagery from your own experiences.Today's most spoken language is the photograph and I share some insights into visual literacy through the "language of the Image". I will also share real-world techniques of how to be invisible and unobtrusive. It is important that a street photographer leave as little foot print as possible, which means you don’t want to affect the subjects by your presence.
We like that, “learn to be invisible”. That’s one skill we’d like to master even if we’re not taking pictures.
Anticipation is also important. By learning how to observe people and how they normally act or react to others, you can pre-visualize what may happen so that when a picture is about to happen, that is the moment you lift your phone camera and shoot.
Is there one foolproof tip for better smartphone photos?
Be ready before the moment.
One important thing about you doing photography is that you’re doing it now with only one eye after a health condition affected your other eye. How challenging is this for you?
I developed glaucoma in the early 2000s and I now have been photographing only with one good eye. It is sad to say that it is like a bad joke that has been played on me by nature. I can only say that when I had two beautiful eyes...maybe I had taken for granted our vision but it was also when I went blind that I started to see the world more clearly than before.
