Words and images Silver Print
Editing The Kanto team
When photography arrived two centuries ago, a single image could take hours of exposure and a working knowledge of chemistry, and it took generations of smaller cameras and cheaper film, and later a phone in every pocket, for the medium to belong to anyone with an eye for the world. Painting and sculpture followed a similar arc on the buyer’s side, as galleries and editions made room for collectors old and new to build bodies of work that mirror their values and appetites.
Photography collecting has been slower to follow, here and elsewhere, especially at a time when we first meet most images on a digital screen. With Spotlight, Silver Print, the archival printing arm of Shutterspace Studios, sets out to help photographers and would-be collectors meet halfway in the year of the medium’s bicentenary, bringing signed prints back onto people’s walls. Visitors to the studio are invited to pore through its crates as they would a record bin, searching for the image to take home.
Edzel Reyes, FUJI IN PASSING Sandra Dans, ROSAS
A living collection
Spotlight opens on Saturday, November 7, at Shutterspace Studios on Katipunan Avenue as a living collection of original Filipino photography, a program with no closing date and a roster set to grow even after the launch. Its opening lineup of 35 photographers spans emerging practitioners and established names, among them documentarist Nicole Revita, cinematographer Neil Daza, and editorial photographer Pat Mateo.
The project grows out of Shelter Fund, the initiative Silver Print led in 2020, when lockdowns emptied photographers’ calendars of shoots and exhibitions. By Silver Print’s count, Shelter Fund sold more than 2,000 made-to-order prints for close to 300 local artists, all bought online; at Spotlight, collectors can judge paper and tone in person.
Spotlight’s opening roster consists of Andie Remulla, KIO, Brian, Nicole Revita, Fourth, Kimberly dela Cruz, Raymond Tanhueco, Carina Altomonte, Tom Epperson, JL Javier, Jan Mayo, Aeson Baldevia, Dar, Edzel Reyes, Jar Concengco, Sandra Dans, Rico Cruz, Martin San Diego, Eddie Boy Escudero, Lancer Salva, Jay Melliza, Conrado, Christian Halili, Jilson Tiu, Ed Simon, Adobong Papel, Ennuh Tiu, Ian Santos, Neil Daza, Luis Antonio Santos, Ezra Acayan, MM Yu, Niko Francisco, Pat Mateo, and Tey Clamor.
“Start with a photograph that moves you, sparks curiosity, or changes how you see something familiar. Over time, these choices can become a collection that supports the artists whose work you value.”
Pat Mateo, CITADELLA Tom Epperson, CONTEMPLATION
For photographers, by photographers
For photographers, the model lifts the costs that make selling prints a gamble. Under Spotlight, Silver Print takes on marketing, print production, and program design, and the artist contributes the original work at no financial risk.
The crates hold Spotlight’s Crate Editions, A4 prints set in 12 × 12-inch mounts. Each is made with museum-grade pigment inks on acid-free Hahnemühle fine art paper, hand-signed by the artist, and issued with a certificate of authenticity. Silver Print, which Hahnemühle certifies as a Gold Studio, is also Fotomoto’s official printer and produced exhibition prints for World Press Photo 2023. Works can also be ordered as Print Only editions from A5 up to A1, with prices starting at ₱1,700, attainable enough for a first-time buyer to own a signed original or start a collection.
Silver Print pitches Spotlight to collectors of any experience level. “Start with a photograph that moves you, sparks curiosity, or changes how you see something familiar,” the studio said. “Over time, these choices can become a collection that supports the artists whose work you value.”
Keeping image making alive
Buying a print is a direct way to support a photographer whose work resonated with you, and the gesture weighs more now, as the field flourishes and comes under pressure at once, with generated images and algorithm-driven feeds crowding the work of people behind a lens. From its first exposures, photography has been a way to keep the moments we want to remember, and it has needed someone present to make it: a photographer in the thick of the moment, heart on sleeve, pressing the shutter so a viewer at the other end of the frame can see it too. •
Spotlight by Silver Print opens Saturday, November 7, at Shutterspace Studios, 175 Citigold Plaza, Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City, with an Open Studio from 2 PM and a launch program at 5 PM. Admission is free; RSVP at tinyurl.com/SpotlightLaunchRSVP. You can arrange studio visits after the launch through spotlightbysilver@gmail.com. Follow @spotlight.mnl on Instagram.
