Baguio on one big white wall

Lomography has captured Baguio unforgettably on one big, white wall. Lomo for short, lomography refers to a recent and exciting trend in film photography that started inauspiciously with a little black box the Russian military had originally intended as a spy camera. Now its fame has spread far and wide, and counts among its admirers artists and photography enthusiasts on all continents. Little wonder then that it should find its way to an artist colony such as Baguio.

The wall, approximately 10 feet tall and twice as wide, is inside Salud!, a bistro cum art gallery in Baguio owned and run by husband-and-wife team Paul Poblador and Nina Tesoro. Just over a year old, Salud! has become a magnet not just for tourists craving exceptionally good food, but also for artists both native and adopted by Baguio.

In cool February a dozen lomographers from Manila shot pictures all over Baguio, day and night, using different Lomo camera models – the LC-A, the Colorsplash, the Pop 9, the Action Sampler, and the Super Sampler. They had the pictures developed as soon as they’d been shot.

Seeing the prints for the first time, even the hardest to please, most jaded photographers in the group were unabashedly effusive. There was something about Baguio that made the usually soft Lomo images even softer, the intense colors even more surreal. Was it the light from the Baguio sky, or the temperature, or the soothed nerves of those behind the camera?

After selecting the best of the images they had captured, the tired but happy lomographers began to build a "wall." By evening of February 27 Baguio’s first Lomo-wall was complete. Close to 500 images now adorn this wall as a collective gasp of awe and appreciation for Baguio – the place, the people, the vibe.

The effect, even to the Baguio-born and bred it seems, is staggering: It is like looking at your own reflection with new eyes.

The exhibit, originally slated to run till March 27, continues up to the end of August. Salud! Bistro (tel. 074-4462637; 0917-8154055) is at 97 Barangay Hall Rd. Lourdes Subdivision Proper, Baguio City. Lomo cameras are distributed at ufo art shop and gallery (tel. 02-7220305), at 85 Araullo St. Addition Hills, San Juan, Metro Manila.

The men and women who put up Baguio’s first Lomo wall were Sharon Atillo, Dan Bravo, Noli Coronado, Kabunian de Guia, Emman de la Cruz, Fernan Escora, Kiko Escora, Jed Escueta, RJ Fernandez, Katya Guerrero, Tanya Guerrero. Dennis Lagdameo, Raymond Lee, Art Maculangan, Violet Miranda and Vernon Perez.