DINAGYANG BURST: A photographer’s exciting journey to a world class festival
by Clee Andro

“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” ~ The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

Are you a young photographer inspired to shoot festivals and meet some of the world’s finest photographers?  Read further into this inspiring story of how a simple wish (although complicated, almost impossible, to pull off) became granted. This is an intensified, true-to-life story how Dinagyang has changed my perspective in photography.

Guess who sat next, beside me at Dinagyang 2012? Meet Manny Librodo, the Philippines’ best portraitist and photographer extraordinaire! 

How and why it had all happened – in a blink of an eye – to my best previsualization prowess, to this day, is still a mystery to me.

This is my personal photographic journey (albeit not-so-secret) mission of why I am now documenting a world class festival called, DINAGYANG in Iloilo City, Philippines. Apart that Dinagyang is the Queen Festival of the Philippines, and the only festival to be inducted into the Hall of Fame  by the Association of Tourism Officers of the Philippines (ATOP) Hall of Fame Best Tourism Event, I just wanted to chance – in the streets – upon Manny Librodo (a photography master who has inspired my works ever since.)

You might have heard of him already:  as one of the Five Best Photographers of the World in 2009 – a prestigious accolade from Scott Kelby, multi-awarded author of Photoshop books and is the president and co-founder of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP).

Way back

During college days, I was able to have a glimpse of Dinagyang revelry, from a few blocks only, when I embarked on a youth field trip/outreach program ministries. We had a different itinerary, so we all missed it. However, the sounds of distant drumbeats were hard to resist (even when we weren’t there anymore!) I wasn’t ready to shoot that festival, by then, and promised myself, one day, I will be there as it happens. More than 12 years later, it was a dream come true (but it didn’t end there).

The experience heightened to greater dimensions.

Some two years ago, I stumbled upon a magazine cover of the Dinagyang Festival with no less than an exuberant Manny Librodo photograph of a “jumping Dinagyang Ati warrior” as the iconic cover page for Asian Geographic (Issue #77). Last 2010, I said to myself, “This must be a beautiful festival, but I don’t have enough money (thousands of pesos to spend) to travel just to shoot with a not-so-fast camera lens… I think this is madness.” What for? (But isn’t this what passion for photography is all about?)

Came January 2011, with no prior hotel reservations in mind and a couple of hundred bucks with me, at 3AM, I boarded the Ceres bus bound to Bacolod City. I acted on “faith” and sheer luck and courage just to check out Dinagyang Festival. To my huge disappointment (and partly, my preparation ignorance), on the day before Kasadyahan (a regional cultural contest that precedes the Dinagyang Ati Contest, on the next day), THERE WERE NO AVAILABLE HOTELS. Resigned to the fate for eight hours, under the scorching heat of the Iloilo sun, I reasoned that there must be a way in this. I’ve braved, mapless, a faceless stranger among strangers, and lost in the unfamiliar territories of Iloilo City and its outskirts, all the nooks and crannies, even as far as the waterfronts in Molo (another district in Iloilo), just to find my chance for a beach resort, instead. Dusk was falling. At night, the chances of checking even the cheapest of rooms dwindled.  I sat in a corner (but asking the taxi driver to hang on with me), zilch as a camera with “No memory card,” bags and all —  I finally reckoned to the universe, “Indeed. This is really madness.” What the heck am I doing here?

It was 8PM. To cut the long story short, Jeremy Villasis, a Bangkok-based Photojournalist (turned-Facebook-friend-turned-real-savior) texted me, “Where are you?” Jeremy was part of the only three Filipino photographers (including me) at FOTOX1000, 2nd Edition, the largest photography collectives (International Festival of Rome) in Italy, a few months back, as my first time to join in these circuits of photography exhibits around the world.

I knew that familiar instance, the proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel,” was absolutely real. He was heaven-sent! Jeremy helped me secure a room at the Iloilo Grand Hotel, where he was staying.

Significantly, Humanity Photo Awards (HPA 2011) has contacted me to showcase Dinagyang Festival in their “discovery and collection of various cultural heritage from all over the world into the collection of dialog and sharing of  cultural diversity contributing to the world’s peace and development.” View My Dinagyang Festival 2011 Documentaries. 

Fast forward to 2012. I booked 3 months in advanced for my hotel reservation. There! That would ensure me the luxury of sleep in this sleepless, adrenaline-pumping festival. The festival coincides with the city’s Charter Day, a diamond jubilee (75^th Anniversary.) Dinagyang takes place every 4^th Sunday of January with a rousing succession of 3-day festival epic highlights; it would culminate on the mesmerizing Ati Contest.

The festival organizers of Iloilo Dinagyang Foundation Inc. (IDFI) have assigned specific areas for media coverage. This includes photographers, bloggers, and the media. I asked another photographer friend to secure us a photographer’s box (while I was still in Dumaguete City, a few days before I could check-in at the hotel), for fear of overcrowding (but true enough, as the hours ticked away), at the Iloilo Sports Complex (ISC). We were stationed at the 4^th Staging Area and the last stop for the parade type of the contest presentation. The parade type was introduced, this year, for the first time.  Over the years, the IDFI has adopted the carousel type, where all the participating tribes simultaneously compete in different staging areas at once. The photographers / media box (it wasn’t really a box, but a spot with just a single bench on a first-come-first-served basis) was laid out fronting the judges box, apparently just perched a few meters behind (and above) us.

Destined to be

After the brisk 8-minute cultural and theatrical showdown from another tribe, we were ready for the next contingent, Tribu Atub-Atub, performing at the 9^th slot. Something unforgettable happened: IT WAS FAST! I could vividly subscribed to it:  Like a Dinagyang Opening Salvo. That was when someone came up to me and asked (he was speaking in Tagalog) if the seat next to me was taken.

“Is someone sitting here?”  (Apparently, he was looking for a perfect vantage point).

When I looked up who he was, I sat there literally frozen, speechless but bursting with excitement from the inside out. OMG! I cannot believe this!  I can imagine all my hands swaying back-and-forth to the lively tune of the Dinagyang thub-thumpy drums and covering my mouth at this jaw-dropping moment, smiling and shouting silently from the inside out (which is, strangely and arguably, a difficult feat for a photographer like me).

“Finally, it’s nice meeting you, Manny!” I managed to catch precious words from my drifting imagination. You could see the look in my face. It was surreal.

“My name is Clee.”

“Oh, hi there!” He smiled. He was one of the most amiable photographers I have met at the ISC.

We shook hands.

I told him about his colorful photo at Asian Geographic and why that prompted me to shoot Dinagyang since last year.

Then, he pulled out a magazine from his camera bag showcasing his published works. Page after page, it was like, virtually and literally, experiencing and viewing another Dinagyang showdown – complete with unleashing enigmatic and magical props (not seen before) flourishing in full monty. We talked about his unique style of shooting in available light (his sidelights unedited photos of the contingents and portraits taken at San Jose Parish were just awesome to behold). There were ephemeral qualities in the images he showed to me and I just sat there blown away at this rare chance of ACTUALLY meeting him. We talked about workshops and his travels around the world, and his inclusion of his favorite photographer  – Steve McCurry – of the National Geographic’s “Afghan Girl” fame, whom Manny refers as “my ultimate idol.”

I asked Joshua James Pulido-Enriquez, my friend photographer, to take a photo of our meeting. Joshua was also excited at what happened. He was with me for our Emaho Magazine coverage of Dinagyang Festival.

The tribal drums and unique percussions have started to pound and rolled again. The wild beats have ushered in the next contesting tribe. Photographers from that area were busy shooting in all directions and angles possible. It was a dizzying moment. But here is one National Geographic photographer, who, just sat beside me; he calmly pressed the shutter button in his reflexes. He waited for the perfect, decisive moment – as he trained his vision and lens to a specific, sweet photographic spot – while the rest of us were shooting, in a frenzied buzz, like wild bees in scattered flight; shooting in bursts, indeed, a flurry of the fastest shutter showdown here and point-with-the-whatever-perspective there. According to the witty emcee, “It’s no longer picture-picture, since they (the photographers) have plenty of memory cards, but pictures-pictures!”

Manny Librodo has showed me an up-close and personal insights into the beautiful and colorful abstraction / juxtaposition he made of those creative-blurring-meets-sharply-accurate end results of an AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II (if I wasn’t mistaken).

“Oh my, how did you do that?” That made me exclaimed, like a heightened, fast-paced crescendo of drumbeats. 

“I have no choice.” He said, with regard to the fast-aperture, super telephoto lens he was using.

I need that next time, I said to myself.

The lens he wielded was the perfect thing on earth to match a live performance shooting – especially at a very challenging and breakneck paces of the Dinagyang Festival’s artistic choreography of these fastest Ati dancers in the world today.

“I shoot with a  Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED for my portraits.” He showed me some of the shots from that lens, too, as he chanced on a real Ati boy while he was roaming around with his Iloilo City street photography captures.

Dinagyang like never seen before (View My Dinagyang 2012 Gallery)

Together with the rest of the photographers, Manny and I were still shooting side-by-side, for a couple more minutes of the participating tribes’ repertoires when it dawned on me, after I left our conversations off, he was no longer there. The experience of not just meeting, but lively talking to Manny Librodo (finally, a personal wish granted!) was similar to experiencing and watching a Dinagyang showdown.

Meeting Manny was fast-paced.

Just like the three months of the contingents’ preparation and a strictly 8-minute show which would include  the entrance,  setting of props,  and the whole performance itself, meeting him was the most unforgettable thing that ever occured to me whilst documenting world class festivals. It is exciting and you’ll love it!

If you ask me, “Who is my ultimate idol?” It’s gotta be Manny Librodo.

So how does it feel (if you ask me again) to shoot right next to one of the world’s best photographers,  now associated with  National Geographic? The feeling is as exuberant as the hypnotic, heart-pounding drumbeats and spectacular, colorful dazzle of Dinagyang Festival. Friends, let’s converge again, see you in their 45^thanniversary celebrations next year and let’s all shout:

“HALA BIRA!”