and the netherlands is now number 2!

The Netherlands, one of the best performing teams in the recently concluded world cup, has pulled off another surprise.
Virtually just under everyone's radar (most especially mine) they have seized second spot overall from the United States as viewers of this blog just yesterday!
This comes as a huge surprise for The Paul Yan Experience team, since we only know of one couple from the Netherlands, Andre & Lorena La Pierre.  Perhaps they have been responsible for the surge in viewership in that part of europe... so, to everyone from the Netherlands, thank you for dropping by.
Oh, incidentally, you guys are just a breath away from also overtaking the Philippines, which is currently in first place.  If you do so, I think I might just write up a special piece on your country...

Raising a cup of hot chocolate to all of you...
and a cuban cigar to you, andre...

Jesus Paul C. Yan
for The Paul Yan Experience

Who's Your Hero?

Who's Your Hero?

For me, it took a giant to open my eyes to the beauty of found objects, and I have not looked back since.

He was a giant in the world of photography. He was a giant to everyone in the industry, in a time when they were too few and far between, but whose conquests reached far far outside the realm of our world. He who was the only Filipino exponent of color posterization where in the rest of the world, there were probably less than a hundred (professionally, less than twenty). Color posterization was the photographic technique I wanted to learn (and eventually master) but could not find any technical literature save for two pages from an obscure issue of a photographic magazine. It took an introduction by Senor Leonidas Maloles for me to meet the giant who would one day be responsible for my decision to pursue photography in the degree that I have pursued it today.

I still remember the day (over two decades ago) when I finally completed learning everything about color posterization, which was a long-drawn process taking between 8-12 hours per photograph. He congratulated me for the months of hard work I put into learning the process. After which he said in the vernacular, “syanga pala, kalalabas lang ng Photoshop. Isang software yun na kaya nang gawin yung tinuro ko sa iyo ng 5 minutes lang....” Oh well. At least for the record I was the second Filipino to learn the technique...

Over the next few years, I would occasionally drop by his studio in between stints of corporate work. In those visits, I would unknowingly meet several other giants, and they would jokingly refer to me as Mister Posterized! It was then that I realized that giants look like giants only when in the company of us mere mortals. But among themselves, the giants are pretty much just like us too. Soon after, I started imbibing their visualizations. This process I call “OSMOSIS” for obvious reasons (from a region of greater concentration to a region of lesser concentration...).

Eventually, as I dropped out of the corporate world in favor of going into business with my family, I spent more and more time at his studio. It was at this time that I learned most of what I know from him and four of his fellow masters. It is from this interaction where I gained my technical knowledge; each one teaching me his field of expertise. I, the sum of 5 masters, from a brew by 5 masters.

He is an architect by education. Perhaps this is the reason why his photographs seem so cleanly assembled as if they were lain out with a design already in mind. All this he accomplished in the camera, way way before the advent of imaging.

Since his youth, he has been into music. Perhaps this is the reason why there is dynamism in his photographs.

He loves the warmth of the sun. Perhaps this is the reason why his early works have often been compared to a painter named Amorsolo. (incidentally, his studio sits on a street also named Amorsolo)

He is simplicity personified. Often we tend to dabble in the complicated, hoping it will show our mastery over a lot of elements; It takes a master to just make everything look so simple and clean.

And he has done more international book projects during the time where the only people invited to do book projects were people of international stature.

Although he towers over most of us, he has never been loud about it, preferring to stay out of the limelight if he can avoid it. But in January 31 2011, he has graciously accepted an invitation by the Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation, Inc. to do a slideshow and give a talk on some of his iconic images during Photoworld Asia 2011.

This giant is Emil V. Davocol, and I will be his assistant.

I am Jesus Paul C. Yan.

My Boracay

A place for solitude in the middle of somewhere.

Thirty years ago, it was the aviary in Greenbelt.  (yes victoria, there used to be a huge aviary where the entire Greenbelt park now sits)  A place of quiet in the middle of somewhere.  I used to walk along it's wooden elevated platforms every chance i'd get, and just look at the giant ferns and the birds I would again only see when I visited Jurong.  I was at least a year away from receiving my first SLR from my dad, and looking was my best way of preserving the memories then.

Jurong was the place I went to on my first ever trip outside the country.  The photograph of flamingos through grass reeds (circa 1987) was one of my first exhibit prints (exhibited at National Photography Week 1989), and it's visual appeal is still enduring.  Jurong, a place of quiet in the middle of somewhere.
  http://thepaulyanchronicles.multiply.com/photos/album/1/unseen_details_of_the_Philippines#photo=7

Fifteen years ago, it was Kowloon Park within the Golden Mile.  (victoria, if you do not know where the golden mile is, then you are not a certified pinoy shopper)  Another quiet place in the middle of somewhere.  I only had the chance to visit once, but I remembered shooting some very stunning photos of roses, one of two kinds of flowers my mom loved, and koi, which was my dad's passion.

Twelve years ago, it was the lagoons of Safari World (victoria, if you will join the paul yan experience on March 25-29, you will see Safari World firsthand) and their huge arapaimas that was my quiet place.  I had never seen as many large arapaimas converge in a single place until then, and I was mesmerized.

Since 2006, I have associated Boracay with the same concepts as those.  My quiet place.  My point of solitude.  This time around however, I brought my camera and captured some private images which I will now share with you.  This is my kind of photography; private, introspective, and with the ability to capture the moment the way I interpret it.

Please appreciate it in the context I have lain.

Posts, of course, are always welcome.

Jesus Paul C. Yan
for The Paul Yan Chronicles 
ps.  requests for exhibit prints will be arranged through my online team.

...so I ask...uhmmm...have you ever been...

A couple of days ago, I was asked about why I used the word "experience" after my name for the photographic workshops I conduct here and there.  I initially thought about just giving a very straitforward and nonchalant answer but decided to go for something in the direction of the pretentiously profound, so I answered, "have you ever heard of Jimi Hendrix?"

As the person inquiring was not a day over thirty and had not really been into rock music, Hendrix was not even on the periphery of her consciousness. I just asked her to type Jimi Hendrix on the google search bar the next time she goes online, and just add the word "experience" after it.  She hasn't gotten round to it yet.

As for me, once upon a time about 15 years ago, there was a band doing the manila gig scene that i'd read about or occasionally run into called "The Aga Muhlach Experience".  Although I never had the chance to share a performance with them, they were made a little bit more famous by their choice of name.  Unfortunately, Aga Muhlach, who has the same name and was probably the inspiration for theirs, was not a part of their band, and eventually asked them to stop using his name for the band... and that was the end of that.

Now, going back to Jimi Hendrix, in an excerpt from an interview about "the experience", he says "...it's not really about you and your experience..." "what i'd like to ask is... uhmmm..have you ever been experienced..?"

And so, not really intending to cast an air of mystery to the name anymore, our workshops are called "The Paul Yan Experience" mainly because each batch goes through some memorable "experience" during the course of their workshop.  It is the anticipation of that particular experience which causes the workshops to be quite popular and endearing to all the participants.  Come to think of it, it is the "experience" part which sets the workshop apart from everything else.  I will leave it at that, and just let the photographs speak for itself. 

postscript:  eagerly awaiting contributions from three writers;  Shanon and her take on Real Coffee's Calamansi Muffin; and Potpot & Tess/Peter's collaborative piece on their Boracay experience.

postscript 2:  I have already prepared my own images of the boracay experience.  expect it to be posted soon.  and i assure you, it will be worth the wait.

postcript 3:  the boracay experience will be having a recap party and it is being organized by potpot.  if you do not know how to get in touch with him yet, he has a link on this page.  you may also reach him through his facebook.

postscript 4:  I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the following for making this event truly memorable:

* D24-K Foto for providing tremendous trade support for all my activities, throughout the year

* Shuji Kida Salon our ultra high-end beauty services partner 

* Professional Image Works (prolab) my official printing partner

* The Olympus Showroom, Annex North Edsa, our trade sponsor

* Kamille & Grace, of The Tides Boracay, our hotel partner, for taking care of some of our vip's

* Boracay Regency, Astoria, La Carmela, & Shenna's for taking care of our other vip's

* Jay & the other staff of Le Soleil's beach buffet dinner for giving my team our BEST MEAL EVER

* Carla of Discovery Shores, for making the experience of being bumped off an airline a shared adventure,
* Shanon & Aurice of Nueva Ecija, for being the only other persons who nearly lost their luggage

* the SEAIR staff, for doing everything humanly possible to get me to Boracay ahead of everyone else, even if in the end I ended up arriving after everyone else, 30 minutes before the sunset, and causing me to lose out on our first shoot sked...

* Peach of Wave 89.1, & Shierdan of CameraGeekTV, our media partners

* Uly, for arranging all airline & hotel accomodations; Sini, for consistently being my most professional model; Manilyn & Lourdes, for being so dependable.

and of course to all the participants, for sharing the last days of November with me.

and to everyone who has browsed this site in the past 40 days.  site traffic has doubled and is about to reach 2,000 hits.  to everyone on the three continents (asia, the americas, and europe) who has paid us a visit recently, thank you for your support.  I hope to reach the 2,000 hit milestone before christmas.

Jesus Paul C. Yan

for The Paul Yan Chronicles

Its Time to Post Your Links

To everyone who joined us in the Boracay leg of the Paul Yan Experience, please post a link to some of your photographs, under the comments section.

Despite all the airport and baggage hassles, we all had a great time!  We should either have a recap/reunion activity, or an online gallery of our photos...

Paul Yan