A sizable, excited crowd packed the lobby of the Ayala Museum on April 16 for the latest in their series of Design Talks. This installment featured graphic design/photography studio EverywhereWeShoot! and coincided with the Museum’s hosting of the duo’s first-ever solo exhibit.
The audience was treated to a lively and informal tour through the pair’s growth in their field, from their beginnings as students at the College of Saint Benilde in the early ‘00s.
At that point Ryan Vergara was only doing graphic design, and Garovs Garovillo was busy with fashion design/styling. During their senior year, they each needed a portfolio in their respective fields as a final project, and so the two decided to collaborate.
Of course, entwined with this story is their love story, since the pair became a couple during college.
As Vergara recounted, his first thought upon meeting the then-green-haired Garovillo was “I like this girl. I want to know more.”
Cited influences were fashion magazines from around the world, whose photography, layout and fashion editorials were outré compared to Philippine standards in the earlier part of this new century.
It was this outsider aesthetic that appealed to them, made it seem different and alive. Other inspirations mentioned included twin pop art pillars Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, as well as legendary graphic designer and Factory art director Peter Saville.
Listening to Vergara tell it, he didn’t seriously take up photography until discovering the work of enfant terrible Terry Richardson. He was inspired by the fact that many of Richardson’s most famous photographs were taken with a simple instamatic Yashica.
Other photographers mentioned as part of their pantheon of idols were Juergen Teller and another duo/couple, Inez van Lamsveerde & Vinoodh Matadin.
The talk was free-flowing, occasionally rambling, but never boring. It was entertaining seeing the couple interject into one another’s statements when they felt it necessary, and picking up the slack whenever the other seemed to falter.
Their personalities shone through as they detailed the different goals they had set for themselves, such as seeing their work published in magazines, to collaborate with people whose talent they admired, to work with musicians and band they liked, and so on. They told stories of how they went about addressing each of the goals, and showed the occasional video as a glimpse into their working process.
At the conclusion of their presentation, the pair raffled off several items, including EWS X Team Manila leather camera straps and limited edition EWS notebooks. After which, the audience was invited to view the exhibit on the third floor.
Upon reaching the floor in question, the exhibit was revealed to be displayed on the very windows of the museum: signature portraits and photos of EWS were printed on semi-transparent sheets and applied to the windows, so that the natural sunlight from outside provided the backlight/illumination of the pieces. A clever concept, but difficult to photograph.
Perhaps that was one of the points.
With EWS’ execution, the window frames became picture frames. As a cool bonus, several of the photos they chose to present had yet to see print and were thus being unveiled for the first time.
Alas, because of the uniform nature of the window frames, one or two of the photos’ landscape orientation had to be rotated 90 degrees, resulting in many people tilting their heads sideways for a better look. It looked funny. But knowing EverywhereWeShoot! this may have been intentional, as the playful duo got a kick out of seeing the audience interacting with their work, literally changing their perspective, looking in an unconventional way.
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Check out MM Yu and Nona Garcia’s collaborative painting/photography exhibit Space & 2 Points at Mo Space in Bonifacio High Street until May 29, 2011. There’s also JP Cuison’s second solo show Popzilla! at the Secret Fresh Gallery, Ronac Art Center, Ortigas Avenue, San Juan. This one runs until the 23rd.