Photographer Rick Rocamora to lensmen: Produce only truthful pictures

A homeless Filipina sleeping on a park bench, a mother feeding her three young children, unclothed children walking along a busy street—these are the sort of vivid images of human suffering that capture veteran documentary photographer Rick Rocamora's imagination.

For 27 years, Rocamora has been exposing ugly truths from their dark burial places. From hunger and homelessness in bustling centers of trade and commerce to the unjust conditions in jails—supposed places of “lawful” detention, it seems as if Rocamora has left no stone unturned.

For Rocamora, the most important task of a photographer is to capture an image in all its truthfulness— no distortions.

In an interview with GMA News Online after a recent photography workshop at Sev’s Café in Manila, Rocamora said that if there was one message he could give to his fellow photographers, especially those in the news industry, it is this: “Produce only truthful pictures.”

He dislikes how some news photographers “stage” their photographs to convey a certain message.

“We cannot allow anybody to make a distortion,” he said. “It has to be very truthful.”

“Right now, anybody can make pictures,” he added. “What differentiates a professional photographer making news pictures from a person next door with a camera is [the fact that] we are professionals. We can guarantee that our pictures are truthful. Once we violate that, it will ruin our profession.”

While staging a photo may be acceptable in other types of photography Rocamora said, “In terms of news pictures, we really need to be very, very militant. The integrity of the news picture is so important that once we violate that—giving a bad image—our integrity is in jeopardy and nobody will believe us anymore.”

“I strongly believe that we should make sure that we protect that integrity or else all of us will suffer,” he warns.

Don't call him 'master'

Over the years, Rocamora has received numerous citations for his work and has been extolled as one who belongs in the ranks of the world’s best photographers.

Despite the accolades bestowed on him, Rocamora simply wants to be known as a photographer.

“I’m a photographer and I’m a Philippine photographer. I don’t like to be known as a master, a father of this and that,” he said. “If I have one wish in my life, it is to known as a Filipino photographer.”

Rocamora has been residing in the US since 1972, but he insists, “I never called the US my home. This is my home,” in reference to the Philippines.

Rocamora said his goal was “to document my concerns in this country because I don’t live here all the time.”

Before Rocamora discovered his passion for photography, he thrived in the corporate world in the US as a manager of a large pharmaceutical company.

“I was completely a marketing person in the US...as a regional manager responsible for about $8 million of business a year...completely different world,” he recounted.

Everything changed when his friend Ed Gerlock, a former priest of the Maryknoll congregation and now a married man, offered to buy him a camera.

“I gave up the corporate world after that, to take up full-time photography,” said Rocamora of the experience of falling in love with pictures. He joked, “I’m happy but with less money.”

Numerous awards

Rocamora’s works have been exhibited at international museums and galleries such as the Smithsonian and the Museum of Photographic Arts.

According to his blog, on which you can also see his photographs, +Rocamora has received awards from various photographers' associations in the US, namely: the Asian American Journalist Association, SF Bay Area Press Photographers Association, New California Media, and Media Alliance.

He was also the recipient of a California Arts Council Art Fellowship and a Local Bay Area Heroes for his work about Filipino veterans of the Second World War.

He also has a book about Filipino Second World War veterans, “America’s Second-Class Veterans,” published in 2009.

Sandra Phillips, senior curator of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, said of his book, “Rocamora focuses his attention on the people he wants us to look at and think about. These are ordinary people. They fought alongside American soldiers in World War II in the Pacific, often at great personal cost.”

“They are Filipinos, living here in the United States, promised benefits by the United States government that many still expect. Most of these men are also very poor, though it is not their poverty that we remember most, but their gentleness and bravery,” Phillips added.

Career highlights

For Rocamora, the two highlights of his career were documenting Second World War veterans and capturing the story of Rodali Mosende, a homeless girl in Quiapo, who managed to finish high school and even pursue college studies.

Rodali’s mother is a sidewalk vendor. Their family sleeps on makeshift beds that they set up on the sidewalk in Quiapo at night.

Rocamora learned how Rodali struggled to do schoolwork on the sidewalk, without lights or a desk. Rodali eventually received financial support for her studies after GMA News Online ran a story about her and a slideshow of Rocamora’s photos of her and her family.

“Up to now, almost two years after GMA ran the story, she’s still getting support,” he said. “Just today, somebody sent her $150. I’m using social media to continue reminding people of her story.”

“I think the story still inspires a lot of people so I’m using whatever is available to share my stories,” he added.

Shooting with an iPhone

Although Rocamora started with film photography, he was no qualms about embracing new technology.

In fact, he shoots with an iPhone, apart from his Leica.

During the photography workshop at Sev’s Café, Rocamora gave these tips:

• Be patient in capturing photos. Wait for the precise moment.
• Put the subject at ease. Tell a joke like, "Ang gwapo mo naman. Ilan ba ang asawa mo?"
• Observe details in taking photos. Look for humor, irony, among others.
• Be persistent.  If you're being questioned or harassed, explain why you are taking photos.

“I think the most important part is go out and enjoy making pictures and at the same time enjoy people,” Rocamora said.

“Photography is not just about clicking the shutter. Photography is about knowing your subject and also knowing how you can tell the story of our subjects better so people will understand and be educated about them,” he added. — VC, GMA News