From Idealisms to Photographs by Noel Abelardo

Noel and I have been friends for almost as long as I have been with present company - where we met in 2006. Like two peas in a pod, we were - and still are - almost inseparable. And for as long as I can remember, he has always nurtured his love for photography. From his point-and-shoot days of lugging around his Sony digicam and each of us would take turns in taking photos of ourselves in various states of alcoholic retardation (that was way back when I would still drink and smoke but since becoming a teetotaler, I have been reduced to just being the wallpaper at parties - if I ever go to one), to the serious fashion and landscape photography he's been keeping himself busy with these days with the aid of his prized Nikon digital SLR - Noel continues to show a  promise of raw brilliance in whatever photographic image he captures.

Although in most of his photo albums, my face for some reason would always show up, he and I have never really experimented on our own little photoshoot as Clyde (another brilliant photographer friend of mine) and I would often do. Noel is working on his portfolio and I, of course, became one of his default subjects on account of three things:  (a) I am an unapologetic camera whore; (b) I possess a fair amount of beauty which I don't have qualms about using to my advantage - always to my advantage, hahaha; and (c) I come cheap, no, make that free. I don't ask for fees but here's the funny part: Noel always ends feeding me, from coffee to popcorn, to lunches, dinners, breakfasts, ice cream, chips. Name it. I'm telling you, with the way I manipulate him to buy me meals, he might as well be running a feeding program with only one beneficiary. Me. Isn't he a darling?

And so this past weekend, he came over to my place bearing salad to line my stomach with and his photography equipment for our long overdue photoshoot. Below are four out of the 300 or so frames he took of me last Saturday. I don't know about you but I fell madly in love with each and every single one of them - raw and unedited.

Thank you Che and here's to many more beautiful photographs - exactly those that will catapult you to fame. But remember, you promised me you won't charge me a single cent for my wedding and baby pictures. Oh but wait, did you say you were only going to take photos of my babies if they're all sporting blue eyes? Fock. Make that another one of your projects then - Project Blue-eyed Donor search. hahaha.

Seriously, thank you for this - and for everything.

                                      

I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing.- Anais Nin

Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country. - Anais Nin

I will not be just a tourist in the world of images, just watching images passing by which I cannot live in, make love to, possess as permanent sources of joy and ecstasy. - Anais Nin

I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naive or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman. - Anais Nin