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Luis Liwanag
“''My eyes are going blind.. and I have just only began to see. Look and feel for the things around you and open your eyes from within your heart.''”

- Luis Liwanag

Luis Liwanag is freelance photographer and also a video journalist. His photos are usually about different issues about humanity, the environment, different calamities, poverty and even the reproductive health.

Early Life
As a kid, there was never a time when a camera wasn’t present in his life. He would usually take photographs of people on the street, like the ice cream vendors. His parents also usually ask him to take their photos. Liwanag’s first camera is a Kodak 76X, but he always dreamed about having a Pentax.

Having a father who is a big reader and also works as an artist at an advertising agency, they have a lot of photos and art around their house. So at an early age, Luis is already aware of the importance of visual communication and appreciates art. He bought his own camera when he was in high school.

Education
As a student, Liwanag studied Advertising at the University of the East and undergraduate courses at the University of the Philippines Baguio and at the Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University.

Career
Luis’ father got sick so he was forced to work to support himself. To earn a living, he applied as a photographer in his school’s newspaper, “The Dawn.” This started his photography career.

"He was only 19 when he got his much awaited break in photojournalism. While doing presswork for his school paper, he heard several gunshots, which urged him to grab his gears and get out the street to document the scene. He covered the scene, without knowing that the dead man was Ben Tumbling, one of Manila’s most wanted men at that time. This experience helped him land a job under the Daily Express and the rest was history."

He left photojournalism for 6 years, and pursued animation in the US, where he was also successful at. He began with The Smurfs, The Flintstones and then with The Simpsons.

But while he was out of the country, he would frequently see Filipino photographers and he felt that he needed to satisfy the fulfillment he sees by the photojournalists back in the Philippines. So instead of applying for a US citizenship, he just bought different camera gears, and then went back to Manila to continue and pursue his love for the camera.

Having diagnosed with Glaucoma in 1992, he struggled to continue his photography career but his sickness did not stop him.

Luis Liwanag’s advise to individuals who aspire to be a photojournalist like him is this: “''One, know your camera. Play with it. Shoot with it. Every day. See its possibilities. Two, know the ethics of the profession. It is now demanded of photojournalist, anywhere he goes to shoot, to work, to publish, that he knows the do’s and don’ts. To know the ethics is easy, according to him. There is Google where the stuff can easily be found as to what is the international standard today. Gone are the days when he would see photojournalists re-insert a knife at a murdered victim, or place a photojournalist-supplied rosary beside a cadaver, for dramatic and commercial purposes. That is his only golden rule to his photographers: never even touch the scene. “The photographer can and should move around to capture a good photograph, but he should not move around anything in the scene.''””

Family
Luis is married to Venus Liwanag and has 2 children, Akira Aprielle Liwanag and Isis Ingrid Liwanag who he teaches and shares his knowledge and skills in photography while his eyesight deteriorates.

Companies he worked for

 * Gama Liaison
 * Agence France-Presse
 * New York based Getty Images
 * Associated Presse
 * European News Agency
 * Xinhua News Agency and TV
 * ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs
 * GMANews.tv

His works have been published on

 * The New York Times
 * International Herald Tribune
 * Time Magazine
 * Newsweek
 * Financial Times
 * Stern
 * Der SPiegel
 * The Guardian
 * And various other International and Local magazines and Newspapers

He shot video documentaries for

 * United Nations
 * World Food Programme
 * World Bank
 * Reproductive Rights in New York