ABOUT FOTOMOTO

FotomotoPH is an organization of visionary photographers, artists, curators, and writers dedicated to promoting Philippine photography through a regular cycle of exhibitions, public programs, and special projects with art spaces throughout the archipelago. FotomotoPH involves a cross-section of the community and encourages participation, appreciation, and collectorship.

FOTOMOTO FOUNDERS

Raena Abella Portrait
Raena Abella

Raena Abella is an artist based in Manila, Philippines. She studied Fine Arts, Major in Painting, from the University of the Philippines, and took further studies in Black and White Photography at the International Center of Photography in New York City; Wet Plate Collodion at Gallery 44 in Toronto; and Platinum Printing at Penumbra Foundation in New York City. Her work has graced the exhibitions at Manila Contemporary, Mo Space, Art Center, Light and Space Contemporary, Ayala Museum, Finale Gallery, West Gallery, Blanc Gallery, Galleria Duemila, TAKSU Singapore, Artinformal and Artfair PH. Raena is currently focusing her photography on a new series ranging from landscapes to the human form. Her fine art explorations expand and dissolve the boundaries of the medium through digital photography and alternative photographic production processes such as wetplate collodion and silvergelatin print. As a testament to the alchemy of technique and intuition, Raena's work as an Operations Manager for a construction company and her training as a certified engine mechanic truly inform her unique artistic vision and visual narratives.

E.S.L Chen

Chen (b. 1987) is a self-taught photographer who has previously worked in the editorial field. He is based in Metro Manila, Philippines.

He took up digital photography as a hobby in his years as an economics major at De La Salle University Manila. He discovered printing and has kept on experimenting with the medium. He is a founding member of FotomotoPH. Recent experiences and collaborations have made him rediscover his interests in painting, drawing and analog photography. Thematically, Chen's work is an amalgamation of paradox, time and impulse. His works can be described as personal experiences preserved as visual memories.

Tom Epperson

Tom Epperson grew up in California, lived in Australia for ten years, and has been based in the Philippines since 1985. In 1989, he established his first photography studio in Manila, focusing on editorials, portraits, and ad campaigns, before transitioning to architecture and fine art. In addition to his career, Tom's exceptional talent as a photographer has been showcased in numerous prestigious art exhibitions. His debut exhibit, "One Light," featured 55 portraits and was a historic event as the first photo exhibit hosted at the renowned Ayala Museum. His creative vision was further evident in the "Frozen" series, inspired by a month-long journey to Mongolia. This two-part series received sponsorship and recognition from industry leaders, including BMW Philippines and the Shangri-La Philippines. In 2009, Tom achieved a significant milestone by becoming the first Manila-based photographer to be invited for an exhibit at the Tyler Rollins Gallery in the Chelsea district of New York. The exhibition, titled "12 BELOW," presented the poignant story of a Filipino family's memorabilia, both physically frozen in blocks of ice and metaphorically frozen in time. Tom’s artistry continues to bloom. His muse is the ever-changing beauty of nature, the stories of people, and the vivid canvas of life.

Stephanie Frondoso

Stephanie Frondoso is an independent curator and writer working for local art galleries and organizations around the Philippines. She has curated over 30 exhibitions and has installed or written for countless more. As a writer, she also regularly contributes to the art section of Vogue Philippines. As an experimental photographer, her artistic work focuses on reviving historical pre-photographic techniques, including anthotypes, chlorophyll prints, and lumen prints. Frondoso graduated from the University of Asia & the Pacific with a degree in AB Humanities. She completed a summer curatorial program at the Sotheby’s Institute in New York.

Francisco Guerrero

Francisco Guerrero is a freelance photographer and director creating commercial and editorial images in the Philippines. His first contact with photography was at the age of 12, taking pictures of chickens in the backyard with his father’s camera. He specializes in telling small stories in a big way. By combining both stills and video into cohesive storytelling, brands can communicate who they are in an authentic and insightful way. He spent some time in school learning a few things. He attended the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California and he holds a degree in Anthropology and Communications from Goldsmiths College, London.​ On the editorial side of things he is the co-founder and Executive Editor of Grid Magazine, an independent travel publication focusing on cultural, travel, and adventure content about The Philippines.

Wawi Navarroza

Wawi Navarroza is an award-winning Filipina contemporary artist known for her works in photography shown in major galleries and cultural institutions internationally. Her works navigate self and surrounding as seen in her self-portraits, landscapes and installations. She is informed by tropicality within the dynamics of post-colonial dialogue, globalization, and the artist as a transnational agent. As a female artist, Southeast Asian and Filipino, her works transmute lived experience to the symbolic using material and studio techniques; creating images that explore the hybridity of identity, photography and place.Navarroza is a recipient of the Philippines’ most important awards such as the Cultural Center of the Philippines 13 Artists Awards and the Ateneo Art Awards. She has also been awarded with the Asian Cultural Council Fellowship Grant (New York), Istituto Europeo di Design Masters Scholarship (Madrid), Lucas Artists Fellowship Award for Visual Arts (San Francisco) and a number of other grants and residencies abroad. In 2023, she was nominated to the prestigious Leica Oskar Barnack Awards. Her works are in the collection of the Central Bank of the Philippines, Metropolitan Museum of the Philippines, Menarco Vertical Museum, Stora Enso Finland, Ayala Group, and private collectors worldwide.

Neal Oshima

Neal Masao Oshima is a commercial, editorial and fine art photographer based in Manila, Philippines. He began his photographic career as a laboratory and field photographer at the Bishop Museum in Hawaii and fine art photographer in San Francisco, CA. His editorial work includes books such as Dreamweavers, a documentation of the T’nalak weavers of the T’boli tribe in Lake Sebu, Mindanao; Treasures of the Philippine National Museum published by Bookmark; Philippine Ancestral Houses by Dr. Fernando Zialcita. Other published work includes Flavors of the Philippines by Glenda Barretto, Beyond Rice and Bamboo by Maria Elena Paterno, and Philippine Forests by Karla Prieto Delgado; Museum Exhibitions of Mr. Oshima’s work include Personal Visions: A Survey of Contemporary Photography at the Ayala Museum in 1999; Barot, a solo exhibit of photograms of traditional Philippine garments that opened the Sepia International Gallery in Soho, NYC; and Lovelock, an exhibit of hair landscapes at the Alliance Francaise, Manila in 2001. He has worked extensively with traditional silver-based print techniques. His platinum prints are part of major corporate and private collections in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Two of his large photograms sold at auction at Sotheby’s HK.

Sandra Palomar-Quan

Chair of the Foundation University Fine Arts program, Sandra Palomar established Palomar Fine Arts Services (PFAS) in 2010 to provide logistical solutions for art projects and collections of studios and cultural institutions. She previously served the Metropolitan Museum of Manila as the Director from 2012-2015. She also co-founded Arts and Design Collective Dumaguete, Inc. (ADCDI) which envisions a community of creatives that strive for excellence through training and mentoring.

Gio Panlilio

Gio Panlilio (b. 1994) is a curator, photo editor, and artist working in the medium of photography.

Jason Quibilan

Jason Quibilan is a professional photographer based in Manila. His works include editorial work with prominent local publications such as Esquire, Vogue, Tatler, and Entrepreneur Magazine as well as Monocle, Tatler Hongkong, and Forbes Magazine abroad. He photographed (and produced through his company, Stills MNL) the Department of Tourism and Tourism Board of the Philippines’ 2022 advertising campaign: “Go Where Your Mind’s Been Wandering Campaign”. In 2016, he began close collaborations with the late National Artist Arturo Luz on a series of photographs and prints. This collaboration led to the founding of Silver, a fine art and print production company based out of Quibilan’s home studio in Quezon City, Shutterspace Studios. During the 2020 Pandemic Lockdown, he established Shelter Fund, a print drive initiative that sold close to 2000 prints and benefitted over 300 artists and photographers. He has exhibited personal work beginning in 2015 with his first show, “Aurals” at the Crucible Gallery. In the same year, he also photographed and produced a privately commissioned photobook entitled “Bataan: Impressions of Everyday Valor”. Since then, he has shown work annually at Art Fair Philippines.

Veejay Villafranca

Veejay Villafranca was born in Manila. He started out in journalism as a staff photographer for the national news magazine Philippines Graphic. After becoming a freelancer in 2006, he worked with several international news wire agencies before pursuing the personal projects that later paved the way to his career as a full-time documentary photographer. He has tackled issues such as changing Filipino cultural and religious practices, the transformation of Filipino gang members, and climate displacement, and other environmental issues. In 2008, he was awarded the Ian Parry Scholarship and a residency at Visa Pour l’Image for his project on the lives of former gang members in Manila and in 2013 attended the prestigious Joop Swart Masterclass program of the World Press Photo Foundation. His first book co-published with MAPA Books, SIGNOS, garnered the 2018 Invisible Photographer Asia first photo book award. In addition, Veejay has mounted over a hundred print shows since 2006 in exhibition spaces in New York, France, Netherlands, Rome, Portugal, Japan, and Singapore and his work is collected by institutions and private collectors in Asia, Europe and the U.S. Veejay continues to work around the Asian region and collaborate with different organizations to show his personal work to engage a wider set of audience.

Who we are
FOTOMOTO PH

FotomotoPH is an organization of visionary photographers, artists, curators, and writers dedicated to promoting Philippine photography through a regular cycle of exhibitions, public programs, and special projects with art spaces throughout the archipelago. FotomotoPH involves a cross-section of the community and encourages participation, appreciation, and collectorship.