Jaime Zobel's vision/GMA: Art behind a camera

In March of 2000, I wrote the following on Don Jaime Zobel de Ayala:

“An intriguing maverick, Don Jaime has half of his friends regarding him as a pragmatic financial wizard, and the other half, as a photographer gifted with the vision, refined sensibilities and creative imagination of an artist.

“Most, however, know him as a humanist, a patron of the arts and a philanthropist. With what princely ease, grace and charm Don Jaime straddles the world of business and the world of art!”

The above was written almost ten years ago yet I find no reason to revise it, particularly that which relates to Mr. Zobel, the photographer, as visual artist. The latest book on him, a formidable tome titled “Journeys with Light, The Vision of Jaime Zobel” by the eminent writer Jose Dalisay, lays stress on Mr. Zobel as artist most persuasively through his photographs of people, objects, seascapes, sunsets, landscapes, flowers, etc. and collages which appear like exquisite paintings.

Mr. Zobel declares, as any visual artist would, the following: “I look for the beautiful things in life. I look for order, harmony, poetry and lyricism.

“I do with light what the Impressionists did — I ‘paint’ with it . . . Light is the life and essense of a photograph.

“I don’t have a technique. I have no clue - I follow what my senses tell me. Sometimes the world is not impressed at all by what impresses me!”

“How can one abstract light? Light is already in one sense abstract: it is not of the earth.

On colors: “The colors of the external world can find and evoke their internal analogues in us - in the way pale blue might pacify the troubled spirit, or green refresh the weary.”

Dalisay writes: “Indeed, Jaime Zobel cannot seem to say enough about light - which is a good thing, because it keeps him producing new arts.”

Alfred Yuson writes: “Zobel’s images undulate in memory, like yesterday’s seagreass.”

Zobel declares further: “Silence comes as the space between events, and I use that space to observe, to learn, to understand.”

Zobel acknowledges the tremendous influence his uncle, the late illustrious painter Fernando (incidentally, my good friend and fellow Harvardian) has wielded on him. Odd as it might seem, despite Jaime’s indebtedness to Fernando, he turned to photography, proving his passion and unwavering belief in his craft, saying: “What I saw in Fernando I have been able to capture in real life.”

Jaime’s towering achievements include 13 books and 30 exhibitions. Among the former are The Sea (1989) which, according to Dalisay, “brings Zobel to obligatory ground for the visual lyricist”, Zobel: Dancer  (1988), Still Life (1990) and Zobel Photographs  (1983).

The first Filipino amateur photographer to be conferred a “Licentiate’ by the Royal Photographic Society of London, Zobel has served as ambassador to the Court of St. James and as first CCP president. He has received recognition from the French and Spanish governments for his various contributions to art and culture.

In sum, “The Vision of Jaime Zobel” singles him out as a photographer-turned-magnificent artist.

In 1959, a team which put out a nightly “Newscoop” led to GMA’s Network Inc’s News and Public Affairs Group. Since then, it has been at the forefront producing award-winning newscasts and programs, and garnering the first and only Peabody Award and numerous medals from New York Festivals.

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, GMA gathered fifty of its artist-members, directors, production unit managers, reporters, hosts, public affairs program producers, video and computer graphic editors, researchers and staff — to showcase their photographs, paintings and sculptures which are as diverse as the artists themselves.

Their exhibit, accompanied by music and poetry opened June 29 at the GMA Network Center, and will run until July 10.