Not wanting to be idle while waiting for her children at the school parking lot, photographer Denise Weldon brought out her camera to look for a subject.

 

It had just rained, and little spheres of water, resembling parachutes, dotted the car hood and the windows. There was beauty in the broken pools of light, interrupted by afternoon shadows, that reflected on the raindrops.

 

The scene started for Weldon a series of photographs of water drops with shadowy silhouettes that evoked the urban landscape, all taken from various perspectives.

 

“Water Spirit” is the theme of Weldon’s exhibit of such black-and-white images that opens on Wednesday at Silverlens Gallery. The title is laden with meaning—ranging from water as a precious resource to fluidity as an emotional state.

 

Symbol of life

 

Regardless, Weldon views water as a symbol of life. The pictures portray her fascination for water’s viscosity and its reflective qualities. She likens these droplets to jewels. One photograph, which used lenses for extreme close-ups, shows how each water drop mirrors the trees in fragments.

 

“I didn’t know that a drop had a shadow, and that a shadow contained the silhouette of the reflection. I felt like a little kid on a science project going, “Oooh… wow!” says Weldon. Likewise, the photograph on Weldon’s invitation shows light and shadows mottled on a water surface. She says they were probably taken in the pool while the shadows were silhouettes of palm trees.

 

In real life, there is nothing grandiose or powerful about droplets of water on the bathroom window or car hood. However, it is the photographer’s mindfulness that makes her works introspective. When the viewer looks closely, one begins to feel a measure of peace in the thought of finding value in the smallest, seemingly most insignificant detail.

 

“It’s just about paying attention to what’s happening around you,” Weldon explains.

 

On her penchant for black-and-white in fine art photography, she says: “My eye tends to see that way, and I appreciate the simplicity of that. It allows me to zone in on what I see. There’s no distraction of color.”

 

Sharpness, clarity

 

For the “Water Spirit” series, Weldon used several cameras—the compact Canon G12 and the Nikon D3000 for the graduated tones. The ultimate, Phase One, was lent to her by photographer Bengy Toda. She explains that the Phase One digital camera has a medium format which allows more views and utmost sharpness and clarity.

 

The 15 photographs in the exhibit come in various sizes, some of which are as large as 30” by 35.” Weldon acknowledges Ronney Cowling for printing the images with  archival pigments on Hahnemühle archival paper. Hence, the photographs last a lifetime and could be displayed alongside paintings.

 

Weldon points out that even her previous works maintain the same viewpoint of upholding minute details instead of showing a scene with many elements. Photographs of a baseboard in the living room, for instance, or a door jamb in the bathroom and the legs of a chair, have been dramatized by shards of sunlight. They are like symbolic reminders of how we should train the mind to be focused on a single action or object instead of being having a scattershot view.

 

“We don’t have to go too far to find what we need to find. Everything is right where we are, if we take the time to pause and look,” says Weldon.

 

Weldon’s foray into fine art photography began when she first owned a camera in her teens.

 

“My fine art work is really personal work. It started when I did photography classes in high school and college. As a student learning about photography, you don’t really label it as fine art, simply because you are still learning how to see. When I went to college and continued to do personal work for my major, then I realized it is fine art work, since it is not commercial in nature.”

 

Hong Kong phase

 

Weldon studied fine arts, majoring in photography, with minors in art history and Spanish, at Wheaton College, Massachusetts. While on a holiday in Hong Kong where her parents had migrated, she found a job in magazine production, advertising and copywriting.

 

“This phase showed me the many ways one could incorporate art in a commercial application,” she says.

 

Missing her photography, Weldon took a leap of faith and found a job in a photography studio. She worked her way up from a production assistant to a photographer with her own clients.

 

In Hong Kong, she met her future husband, architect Manny Miñana, through common friends. She was just building her photography career and client base when they got married. Transferring to Manila, she had to restart her career from zero.

 

Weldon worked with friends Lorraine Belmonte and Sari Yap at Mega magazine. Then her husband introduced her to Thelma San Juan, then GM of ABS-CBN Publishing and editor in chief of Metro magazine. Publisher Vernon Go also invited her to shoot “Manila is People” for the Fookien Times.

 

Photographer Neal Oshima also introduced Weldon to publisher Larry Cruz, who gave her her first book project, “Malate: a Matter of Taste.” Photographer Lita Puyat then asked her to join a team of photographer-friends for the book “Chinese Filipinos.”

 

Weldon would also be one of the photographers of Bench’s “Pinoy Pop Culture” book.

 

“I am lucky to have work that is varied, for this makes things interesting. I shoot for magazines, annual reports, advertising agencies, corporations and portraiture for private clients and their families,” says the now-established Weldon.

 

“At the end of the day, all that you do is part of your bread and butter. You balance it with community service or pro bono work,” she adds.

 

Favorite project

 

She cites Dove’s “Women on Women Empowerment” campaign as one of her favorite projects. Photographer Sara Black invited 10 female photographers to portray 10 women who made inroads for themselves and for the community.

 

“I loved this campaign because I could shoot it the way I wanted to. There was fluidity and ease. There were pegs to follow for consistency in the studio setups, but the environmental portrait was shot with the understanding that you’ve reached a point in your life where you know what you have to do and how to do it.”

 

Maintaining artistic integrity has been one of her challenges.

 

“You need courage to stick to ‘to thine own self be true.’ It’s easy to do what everyone else is doing, to think the way everyone else is thinking, to say the right things and to act the right way. We have to ask: ‘Why am I here and what is it I am to share?’”

 

Ultimately, Weldon’s images, though quiet, invite the viewers to do a double or triple take.

 

“They’re about being awake and being mindful,” she says.

 

“Water Spirit” will open on April 30 at Silverlens, UMC Bldg 2, 2380 Don Chino Roces Ave. Ext., Makati City.