The Prodigies I Have Come Across

Three people come to mind right away.

Matt Sia was never formally a student. But he sought me out after classes each week for an entire semester. Of the three, Matt for me was the most gifted, photographically.

When I first met him, he was a lanky teenager, kinda unsure of how to go about interacting with his peers. I notice that it is a common thing among young prodigies. But Matt had a handle. Everyone knew how good he was with photography. That somehow made interacting a little less difficult for him.

His first questions delved mostly on equipment choices; the kind that I get from people who had money to burn and needed advise about what equipment to display. But then I realized that Matt was sincerely asking about the best equipment and optics because he was already at the point where it would start to matter. I took pains to go through specific equipment test results with him, discussing areas of strengths and weaknesses, while addressing his point of view. We would spend an hour after class, over bites of chili footlong hotdogs, discussing equipment. I realize that beyond the equipment knowledge, I needed to give him a better motivation to shoot. Which I did. Aside from occasionally giving Matt access to better equipment, I also provided specific shoot opportunities to get him to hone his skills. Photography is a craft. And crafts needed to be practiced to keep the skills sharp.

I remember one such situation where I brought him with me on a fashion and headshots shoot. He actually came up with a better visualization than I did. Of course I should say I expected that, since I was building up a prodigy. Matt, I am talking about the shot in front of the semi-rusty green gate which I asked you to hold, in private, for half a year. if you still have it, please post it here.

Matt has the ability to make a livelihood from Photography. Parents would always prefer that their children should just continue running their family business. It will eventually be Matt's judgement call. My role in the equation was merely to provide the stabilizing element to calm down the emotions of prodigies. Matt calmed down enough to graduate from Xavier, and then move on to UST for college.

Timothy Ong came the year after.
Everybody also knew how gifted he was, photographically. Everybody called him TONG, attaching the T from his first name to his family name. Tong first blew me away when I had his class come up with a special concept christmas card for their plate. It was a collaborative effort with Alex Oh, who was also quite talented.

here is a sample Alex's Photo

Immediately I saw where Tong's skills lay. He had the ability to conceptualize visuals in much the same way we do it for advertising projects. Just to digress a bit... print advertising requires the marriage of the written word with strong visuals. Marriage, because the combination produces a communication material that should be much much stronger than the sum of the individual parts. I also took pains to bring him up to speed on photographic fundamentals as well as aesthetics, by offering both of them scholarships to several workshops I was doing at the Astoria Plaza. I also brought them along to a walking shoot of rustic Manila just to give them both a flavour of shooting real-world situations.

Tong is a typical teenager, but with goth streaks. A typical advertising guy will have goth streaks, but behaves like a teenager. So Tong seems like a natural. He will probably gravitate towards the noveau art scene soon.

Tong, if you still have the christmas card, please post it here.

Chris King came during my last semester. He was also the youngest, but most mature emotionally. He also was the only one among the three that did not own a decent camera. What he used in class was a beat-up Nokia N95.

As every "Paul Yan Experience" alumnus knows, the first plate is mandatory for everyone, and that is what you first ask for when you meet another alumnus. "How does your Coke plate look like?"

For the Xavier alumni, their coke plate will probably revolve around their computers, or their playthings; mostly photographed inside their rooms.

Chris's plate was photographed on top of a hill he just climbed, sky, grass, and the red can of coke. Uncluttered, open to so many interpretations, all positive and conquering. Lucky he had a Nokia N95, instead of my then uber-expensive Motorola Razor Executive series. The N95 focuses. The razor is focus-free. Now those two phrases will suddenly be a lot easier to understand.

Chris followed this up with his plate on lines, even capturing the motion trail of a moving vehicle. I asked "what camera this time?" and he answered, "the same N95..."

Chris, put up any photo of your choice.

Although I knew that he was already at that point where his skills can not go any further unless he moves on to a "real" camera, he takes his time and chooses to buy a mountain bike instead. I do not rush him. Talent takes time to mature. We have 1 hour conversations over the same foot-long chili hotdogs as Matt was now at University. We talk about life. And then out of the blue he says, "The Will of The Wind. Right?" referencing a blog post I did around that time. I look him strait in the eyes, and just nod. Silence.

Of the three, Chris is least likely to pursue a career in photography. For me, teaching Photography to Chris was to give him a steadying influence he will need to bank on, in a future world that he will find himself in.

I made sure Chris became a legend in front of his peers, by getting him to give my card to someone, in front of everyone. Chris will probably still hear the cheers and clapping everyone gave him. I also made sure Chris became a legend with the fellow non-Xavier PYE alumni when I elevated him to PYE Team status in Puerto Galera. What he does beyond that is totally up to him.