Miguel de Quiros captures beauty of self-acceptance in nude art exhibit

Film photographer Miguel De Quiros unveiled over 30 nude black and white stills in his first solo show, Buto, Tiklop, Laman, at Vetro gallery in Quezon City on December 3. The exhibit ran until December 21.

Nude photography is not new, but De Quiros still made people's jaws drop with his fearless choice of subjects: he shot a mix of professional and amateur models with body types that we don’t normally see naked in mainstream media. And he didn’t give them any creative direction during the shoot, in order to capture their most authentic selves on film.

"I didn’t impose anything on my models. I just let them be themselves," De Quiros said.

"I just let them move in a way comfortable for them. When I ask a model to pose for me, I don’t want to exclude the model from the process. The process is working with me. Normally, I go out with the models first and then we talk. I ask them, How do you see yourself?' 'How do you see your body?'"

De Quiros, 28, is the son of respected journalist Conrado De Quiros and a graduate of the Marilou Diaz-Abaya Film Institution and Arts Center. He said that during the shoots, he would just let his subjects "do their thing."

"It's about finding comfort in yourself, finding the expression rather than form. I just want you to be there and share yourself," he said. "I'm not asking you to be anything you're not. I don't give a theme or a story they should tell. In my shoot, the theme is you."

The result of De Quiros' artistic process is a heart-stopping catalogue of mental states and emotions that weave a beautiful visual narrative of self-discovery, surrender and love, reminiscent of the raw stills in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless.

Stripping the photos of color makes the subjects speak for themselves, allowing the audience to focus on what the bodies express, not how they look like.

"I wanted people to look past their nudity. When you look at the photos, you don't realize that it's naked. You don't see the boobs, the parts. You look at the emotions," De Quiros said.

The collection was barely edited. Even the two dreamy photos that looks like effects were added into them weren’t edited at all.

"This photo actually happened accidentally," said De Quiros. "I use two types of light. One is continuous, and the other is a studio flash. There are times where my film camera doesn't trigger the studio flash and so I took another photo on the same frame, but I forgot that I had a different light source, so in effect, two images were captured."

There are many reasons why the young shutterbug still prefers to shoot in film rather than digital alternatives. One of them is the pleasure in waiting. "I like waiting for a long time before I can see the photo. It pressures me to not waste every shot. It pressures me to avoid mistakes. I'm a very patient man," he said.

"Technically, the quality of photos shot in film is still the best, especially when it’s black and white. It has that vintage feel."

In an era saturated with a barrage of photoshopped selfies and disconnected snapshots of experiences, De Quiros’ body of work bravely unravels his subjects' journey to embracing who they truly are in a timeless medium. As you gaze deeper into this monochrome visual archive, the story that unfolds in front of you pierces you within, and prods you to think of your own relationship with your body.

For his next project, this emerging fine-art photographer will explore transgender transformations in film. — BM, GMA News