Capturing Manila from the sky

"The city tastes different from above," writes the French photographer Pierre Emmanuel-Michel in his blog. And he shows you. Armed with a camera and a room in a Makati hotel, Pierre set out to capture the labyrinth that is the city in its many moods, washed in sunlight or lit up by neon brights. From way up high he shows us glimpses of everything below - mere specks, lost in the maze of buildings and the quilt of colors - gritty and glowing at once. The large-format printouts on archival paper pose more questions than answers, and the viewer is challenged. Where does one focus when the art is this large? Your eyes will dart from line to line, and your gaze will be swayed by the curves. Try as you might, the work is not within the four corners of the frame. It is like an infinite picture with so many details worth spotting, and a sweeping view at he same time. At the exhibit opening on June 6, Pierre was pleased to see that many of the guests were people he didn't know. "It was a success, and it confirms my place is in the Philippines," he e-mailed GMANews.TV the day after. Asked if he was proud of the show, he says he was, but only at the beginning. "Then I realized that the pictures don't belong to me anymore. They are for people. It's quite weird, it looks like they're not my babies anymore, or like they've grown and it's time for them to live their own lives," he said. The artist, known as Pierremm, has been living in the Philippines since he fell in love with the country in 2009. His exhibit is at the KAIDA gallery until June 24. - GMANews.TV KAIDA gallery is at 26 Scout Torillo Corner Scout Fernandez, Sacred Heart, Timog Ave., QC