Rouge Ready: Getting Real

I told myself that I would never post another photo of myself here on the blog; that I would dedicate this online space for my writing.

And yet here is this new post with not one, but 6 photos featuring myself, front and center.

I try my best these days not to seem narcissistic (I say seem because in a sense, everything we post on social media does draw attention to ourselves--it's inevitable). Looking back at my past blog posts of blurry camera phone photos and extremely unnatural OOTD poses, I now realize that my approach to blogging then didn't feel right. I guess the whole thing just felt too orchestrated: finding the perfect spot to shoot, catching the best lighting, hustling to take pics before I leave the house, and posing to capture my best angles. Believe me, I think I've taken a photo at every corner of my house. My attempt to put the spotlight on my outfits turned into a daily or weekly photo shoot for a never-ending advertisement starring me.

Well, I'm 19 years old now (a year closer to 20, and still single af)--college freshman and eternal Francophile. Aside from my drive to pursue my writing, my blog epiphany was accompanied by an urge to still share photos. And so my "new life" began with Instagram: my feed was saturated with flatlays, magazines, cute travel pics, outfits (cropped my face out though), and of course, birthday greetings for my besties. As for the blog, I haven't posted an OOTD series in a million years. Turns out, you can post things without putting a postage stamp with your face on it.

Fast forward to the middle of the first semester, I found myself signing up for a series of talks organized by ACOMM (Ateneo Association of Communication Majors). I only attended one leg of the 3-day event because the focal point was F-A-S-H-I-O-N. On the day of the fashion photography and styling talks, I had three hours to spare after my last class (which I spent aimlessly browsing through IG--thank you, Gonzaga wifi). When it was finally time to walk to the building, I was SO EXCITED. I knew that two of my block mates would be there as well, and so I was happy to have bumped into them.

And so, the three of us ascended the stairs--Migs, Enzo, and I.

The Comm studio was tucked in a narrow hallway, as if it were a creative's hole-in-a-wall restaurant. We gathered around a tiny table for registration. Three or four other interested peeps were probably with us. As I entered the high-ceiling room, I was overwhelmed. For some weird reason, I felt that I belonged there. I belonged to the freezing air, the studio lights, the exciting atmosphere that anticipates the birth of something freaking ingenious. "Let's sit in the front row? Or too eager?" I laughed. But they were cool with it (because apparently, we were all equally "eager").

We sat for an hour or so with our jaws dropped and our minds enlightened as we listened to Koji Arboleda and Gelo Arucan. The editorials that were presented to us were amazing--they were well-conceived, cohesive, and downright creative. Each concept was a breath of fresh air that definitely needed to be inhaled like a drug. "That is so cool," we would constantly say during the talk. "I love that so much," one of us would say about a particular photo. To condense our experience into one cliche sentence: It was inspiring. We walked out of that joint just bursting with artistic juices. Although we weren't aware of it yet, it was that crazy energy that would later on bond the three of us together.

From that moment on, our conversations would revolve around anything and everything creative under the sun. We've discussed local photography, art, the "IG Universe" as we like to call it, and other people and places that greatly influence our lives. Soon enough, we attended another talk which was on photography and Instagram (yay!). In a strange turn of events, we impulsively decided to have a photo shoot right there, in the moody staircase of that building. I guess you could say it was the first of (hopefully) many productions to come.

Don't get us wrong--our love for photography is not based on the publicity that IG posts receive when a photo is "well-lit" and "well-angled", and the subject, "well-dressed". In fact, we don't care what others think. In one FBC conversation, we were talking about the brand Sunnies and how we wanted to strut around school wearing a pair. Enzo and I were both afraid of being judged (because a person wearing sunglasses in school is a rare sight). But Migs confidently says, "but then...fuck them."

As a team, we now wish to take on more photo shoots and to produce more concepts that get more interesting with every frame. Retro? Futuristic? Androgynous? The possibilities are infinite; and hey, the styling is fun.

I guess this would be the takeaway: let your aesthetic develop naturally. If OOTD's aren't your thang, then just don't do it. You don't need to conform to how others perceive aesthetics because at its core, art is open to interpretation. And so, have your cake and eat it too. In my case, I guess I like photography to be as honest and as real as possible. I hope that the pictures below--by Miguel Tarrosa--shed some light on that subject.