THIRTEEN panels of war photos taken from conflict-ridden areas in Mindanao arrived in Pagadian City last week and were toured around campuses and parishes for display.
Entitled “Today as the Past: Telling the Story of Mindanao and Imagining its Future,” the exhibit recounts the escalation of the war in Mindanao arising from the debacle over the Memorandum of Agreement on ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) and its subsequent impact.
The photos, which have already toured around several cities in the archipelago were brought in by the city chapter of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) in collaboration with the Interfaith Forum for Peace and Solidarity.
Ryan Rosauro, PECOJON resource person, emailed this paper and showed his gratitude to the organizers of the photo exhibit for their concern in helping people read the island’s history and its critical point through the snapshots of professional photojournalists.
“We hope many people would be able to see it and hopefully also take a different view of the year-long war between MILF and government forces beginning last year as a fallout of the aborted MOA-AD,” said Rosauro.
The photo exhibit, he added, is a photo essay that presents how conflict-sensitive reporting should be practiced, without losing sight of the violence while painting the context why such happened.
“Because of the violence focus in reporting war and conflict, only the 'official' sides of conflict parties are accorded opportunity for airing sentiments. Hence, public understanding about the incident or series of incidents is limited to these views,” Rosauro added.
Five Mindanao-based photojournalists put up the entire exhibit: Froilan Gallardo, Charlie Saceda, Richel Umel, Rommel Rebollido and Mark Navales—with footnotes by Rosauro.
The PECOJON resource person then appealed never to forget the indispensable role played by photojournalism and photography in depicting the real images of war and conflict.
Quoting photographer James Nachtwey, Rosauro ended his message: “Why photograph war? For me, the strength of photography lies in its ability to evoke a sense of humanity. If war is an attempt to negate humanity then photography can be perceived as the opposite of war.”
“And if it is used well, it can be a powerful ingredient in the antidote of war. If everyone could be there to see for themselves the fear and grief just one time then they would understand that nothing is worth letting things get to the point that this happens to one person, let alone thousands.”
“But everyone cannot be there. And that is why photographers go there. To create pictures powerful enough to overcome the deluding effects of the mass media and shake people out of their indifference,” he concluded.
Founded in 2004 as a Philippine-German partnership project, PECOJON at present has developed into an international network with members from the Philippines, Indonesia, East Timor, Australia, Africa and Germany.
REPORT BY MICHAEL MEDINA
