Wawi Navarroza on shadows and light

“Visual poetry” is what photographer Wawi Navarroza calls her work. One of the leading fine art photographers in the Philippines, her work has been warmly received by audiences here and abroad. Most recently, she has been awarded the Silverlens Foundation Fellowship by the Asian Cultural Council-Philippines, a grant that will take the photographer to New York City next year to further hone her craft.

Already an internationally recognized artist at 29, Wawi has exhibited her work in Europe, Russia, and Asia. “I’m used to being the minority,” she jokes of taking part in group exhibits abroad where she is usually the only Asian, the only female, and the youngest artist. With her poignant and deeply personal work, Wawi indeed sets herself apart from other artists.

When asked if she has always wanted to be a photographer, Wawi answers with an emphatic “No!” When she was an undergraduate taking up Communication Arts at De La Salle University-Manila, she says, “I wanted to be a filmmaker.” She was also interested in poetry and music. It was her professor, contemporary artist and curator Judy Sibayan, who first recognized her talent and convinced her to concentrate on photography. “Things conspired to make this happen,” Wawi says of how she discovered photography.

From then on, “I started falling in love with the process,” Wawi shares, especially when she started to develop her own photos in the darkroom. Eventually, she would develop her signature style of photographs captured on monochrome film that is further manipulated by hand in a process she perfected in her many darkroom experiments.

 “Photography spoke to me as a medium,” she adds. As she discovered her natural eye for photography and started to hone her skill, Wawi says, “I started seeing things in a different way.” The photographer, suddenly aware of the art around her just waiting to be captured, shares, “From then on, I saw everything in lines and patterns.”

Since then, Wawi has gone international. She has exhibited in Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Australia, Russia, and the Netherlands (Fries Museum of Contemporary Art), participating in group exhibits and being featured in photography festivals.

She has also mounted her own solo exhibits, among them, the award-winning “POLYSACCHARIDE: The Dollhouse Drama” in 2005 and “SATURNINE: A Collection of Portraits” in 2007. Wawi was also part of the Instituto Cervantes de Manila’s “Santa Frida: 100 Años Entre Nosotros/100 Years Between Us,” where she paid homage to Frida Kahlo by recreating the painter’s self-portraits on film, with Wawi herself in Frida’s place. “I discovered so many things in common with her,” Wawi says of Frida as she did extensive research on the artist’s work when she prepared for the exhibit.

Saturnine is one of her favorite and most memorable exhibits. “It was very sincere and personal,” she says of her works in the show. Aside from capturing her own personal truth, she says that Saturnine also succeeded in furthering her campaign of fine art photography in the Philippines. Wawi was also pleasantly surprised that the exhibit was well received abroad. The message that she wanted to convey was understood and appreciated by local and foreign audiences alike.

Wawi’s most recent works are included in the traveling group exhibit, “Another Asia,” which is now in Jakarta, Indonesia. Her latest solo exhibits were at the Ateneo Art Gallery and the National Art Gallery, National Museum of the Philippines. She recently returned from her Ateneo Art Gallery-Artesan Gallery Artist Residency Grant in Singapore where she mounted two solo exhibits: “When All is Said and Done” and “This is What She Told Me (A Kaleidoscope of Women)”.

Wawi, who is influenced by the surrealists, says that her photographs “provoke you to think deeply and not be complacent with what is familiar.” Her haunting works of fine art photography hold their own beside the works of the photo-journalists she often exhibits with.

 “I want to make a difference with my work,” the prolific photographer shares. Aside from exhibits, Wawi enjoys giving workshops, talks, and seminars on photography. Her master classes have been well attended from Manila to Cambodia to Russia.

Needless to say, Wawi has received numerous awards for her work, with Saturnine winning in the Ateneo Art Awards in 2007 and Polysaccharide a finalist in 2006. Abroad, she won “Con Otros Ojos” Concurso Fotografico in Barce-lona, Spain. Wawi was also named Best in Photography in the 54th Art Association of the Philippines Art Competitions in 2001. Despite the recognition, she says, “I’m not competitive.”

She explains, “I don’t do things for people to like them. I follow my own thing.” She adds that it is always encouraging, as well as humbling, to receive recognition for her art. “I’ve been lucky so far,” she says.

“I’m trying to live life as artfully as I can,” Wawi says. When not busy with her fine art photography, fashion editorials, and commissioned portraits, Wawi immerses herself in all forms of art. “My life is a synthesis of different arts,” she says. The photographer also does performance art, performs with the spoken word group Romancing Venus, and sings for the rock band, The Late Isabel.

“The band’s first album was well received in the underground music scene,” says Wawi. The Late Isabel is currently recording their second album, “Imperial.” With her poetry, music, performance art, and photography, Wawi Navarroza’s life is indeed lived in the arts.

Wawi’s latest grant from the Asian Cultural Council is, she says, “the greatest affirmation.” She adds, “I am honored and excited to be part of it.” As she gets ready to go to New York next year, she says with a smile, “I think it’s going to change my life.”

Already a veteran photographer at 29 (“I never left 19,” she insists), Wawi has much advice to share with aspiring photographers and artists. “Think,” she says. “Because it will make you hear your personal truth. It will make you hear your own voice. It will make you know what you want to do. That will make you different from other artists.” It is this conviction that has set Wawi apart as an artist.

 “The secret of the shadow is light itself,” Wawi shares of her art philosophy. Each cannot exist without the other, she explains – a notion synonymous with her art and real life, without which neither would be complete. “My photos are reminders,” she says, “of our shared passion as human beings.”

With her works of art that remind people all over the world of a basic human truth and a shared passion, Wawi Navarroza shines – bathed in light, caressed by the shadows.