Light and play in the spotlight at Silverlens Gallery

Photography takes center stage at Silverlens Gallery's shows, which kicked off last Aug. 15.

Silverlens founder Isa Lorenzo goes back to the basics of photography, created a series of photograms for her show, "Isa Lorenzo, 007: First Responder."

"It's about human nature, how since time and memorial, human beings have always wanted to conquer," Lorenzo told GMA News Online during the show's packed opening night. "With conquering comes conflict, comes negotiation or war, and whatever resulting peace, if any, comes after that."

The white-on-black, hard-to-reproduce prints used various scenes of historical conflict and clashes such as maritime exploration, Catholic crusades, and Tiananmen Square.

Lorenzo's favorite piece features animals balancing on one another on a wheel, expressing it as "there's this superhuman effort to keep things balanced."

Photograms are x-ray-like images formed through "cameraless photography."

"This is photography at its very basic," said Lorenzo.

Artist Gary-Ross Pastrana deconstructed photography in "On (or before) Photography / The silver + gelatin works by GARY-ROSS PASTRANA" to focus on its process, presenting an experiential methodology in three parts: musings put in writing, objects produced in experiments, and visual documentation.

"Somehow na-identify ako as a photo-based artist, but sa totoo hindi naman ako photographer," Pastrana told GMA News Online. "I make objects, I use concepts, wala akong training sa photography. Documentation siya."

Pastrana came across the gelatin silver process while reading photography books. The process piqued Pastrana's curiosity. In it, silver and gelatin recombine photography's elements to create "another kind of object" through playful experimentation.

Pastrana's combined presentation of text, artifacts, and photos, requires patience to sink in, but the soul of the piece resides in his field notes.

“Nung sinulat ko na siya, na-realize ko na yun talaga yung pinaka-honest na version ng idea. The objects and the photographs are just there to supplement the text. — VC, GMA News


Isa Lorenzo's "First Responder" and Gary-Ross Pastrana's "On (or before) Photography / The silver + gelatin works" will run at Silverlens Gallery until Sept. 13.