Aeson Baldevia

PORTFOLIO
AESON BALDEVIA
Filipino Photographer
In a world of photoshop and digital manipulation, it is refreshing to see a young photographer
who can so skillfully capture scenes with his camera utilizing only what his environment nat-
urally gives him. Whether it is a landscape or an urbanscape, a choreographed or a candid
shot, young photographer Aeson Baldevia’s profound respect for his subject can be so evi-
dently seen in all his photographs. Although only 24 years old, Aeson has been impressing
people with his work for years, winning First Place at the Canon D’Hub Shoot n’ Run Photo
Contest in 2012 as well as getting First Place for Photojournalism for the College Press Awards
in Region VI in 2011. He was a Grand Finalist for both the 1st PAGCOR National Photo Compe-
tition in 2013 and the Thunderbird Resorts’ Express Your Art 2 Photo Contest in 2012. His con-
tributions to the field of visual arts have not gone unnoticed, having been awarded the PGMA
Outstanding Achievement Award for Culture and Arts in 2009 as well as being consistently
awarded the Corps d’Elite Award for Outstanding Student in the Field of Visual Arts by his
alma mater, University of St. La Salle – Bacolod, for the five years he was there. He founded
and currently heads 034 creatives, a design and photography consultancy that aims to help
companies in his hometown of Bacolod in their branding and marketing needs. He is also one
of the founding members and the full-time visual and graphic artist of The Dream Project PH, a
volunteer-based non-government organization that helps build, shape and enable collective
Filipino dreams among underserved and underprivileged communities. His photographs have
appeared and been featured in the pages and sites of I-Mag Photography Magazine, Cruising
Travel Magazine, Visayan Daily Star, Operation Smile International among others.
Before They Are Gone
Digital Photography, 2017
An archipelagic nation with more than 7,100 islands, our Philippines is a culturally diverse country that has 110 ethno-linguistic groups.
While our culture is evolving and our indigenous people being helped to adapt to modern society without completely losing their ethnic
identity, there is still a strong need to help preserve their truths in its purest form and educate the new generation, currently caught up in
their own modernized world, of their cultural story that is woven to the fabric of our nation.

Armed with the power of photography to immortalize the most vivid and historical moments, I immersed myself in the rugged mountain
community of the Panay Bukidnons in Barangay Garangan, Calinog, Iloilo to capture their everyday life with much cultural authenticity.
To athe intensities of their interactions and intricacies as an indigenous community: from a father teaching his son as a cultural apprentice
to a mother hairdressing her daughter; from an extended family embracing the morning light at the top of the mountain to a family fondly
enjoying sabong (cockfight); from women hand-sewing their rich red traditional costumes with panubok (indigenous embroidery) to elders
performing their oral traditions; from how the female hands created jewelries made from old coins to how the male hands folded piper
betel leaves and nut to mamâ (masticate); from interacting with their gamaba (male cultural elder) to being in the rare presence of their
most popular and last binukot (a cultural “princess” who spent time in isolation to master oral traditions before given to a marriage after
a dowry).

As our beloved nation, the Philippines, continues to grow and age, gifted by our heroes and ancestors with fought freedom, Forget Them
Not is a special visual homage that captures and celebrates the rich culture and traditions of the Panay Bukidnons. It hopes to help tell
and immortalize their defining and sacred story, not just as a collective memory, but a cultural anchor that will guide our people and our
future generations to dream and see a better future of possibilities and greatness.
Silay City
Semana Santa
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Photography Group Exhibition
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 Awards and Distinctions
1st Runner-up, Provincial Environmental Week Photo Contest ( 2007)

PGMA Outstanding Achievement Awardee for Culture and Arts (2009)

1st Place, Capture the Parade-Canon Bacolod Chinese Festival Photo Contest (2010)

2nd-Runner Up, MassKara Photo Contest (2010)

Best Campus Photoblogger, Philippine Information Agency-Region VI (2010)

1st place, Zest-o Boracay Shoot n Run Photo Contest (2011)

1st Place , Photojournalism, College Press Awards-Region VI (2011)

Grand Finalist, Thunderbird Resorts’ Express Your Art 2 Photo Contest (2012)

1st Place Canon D’Hub Shoot n’ Run Photo Contest (2012)

Finalist, Canon PhotoMarathon-Visayas Leg (2012)

Grand Finalist, 1st PAGCOR Photo Competition (2013)

6th Place, PANAnaw National Youth Advertising Competition (2013)

Graciano Lopez Awardee- “The Lead Magazine” – Associate Editor College Press Awards (2013)

1st Place, DLSU VisAw Awards-Photography (2014)

Up and Coming Photographer feature by I-mag Photography Magazine, (Issue 42) (2014)

4-time Corps d Elite Awardee, Outstanding Student in the Field of Visual Arts (2011-2014)

Artist, two-man exhibition with Jovito Hecita, “Before They Are Gone”, Makati (2017)

Finalist, Super Young Category, Celeste Prize 2017, London

Artist, Art in the Park, Orange Gallery (2018)