Cris Sevilla-Bilbao

Despite being a writer, producer, and director for television, Cristina would, time and time again, do solitary trips to the vast wastelands of Baseco, bringing her Nikon F3 camera to shoot the fragile trees growing out of dark lakes of garbage. There was always the ache of documentary photography brewing inside her. It was something she had to do.

In 2008, she found her place among other likeminded individuals, when she was chosen to be a scholar of the Diploma in Photojournalism at the World Press Photo’s Konrad Adenaeur Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University. The graduate program is given to select seasoned photojournalists or those who express through their words and their work, genuine passion and respect for documentary photography.

Cristina has also been part of exhibitions. In 2006, she was one of the three photographers to be part of a group exhibit sponsored by Alliance Francaise documenting the Philippine operations of the Clowns Sans Frontieres, a group of French clowns performing for free to the most destitute areas of the world. The photographs centered on the joy brought to the children by the activity of the Clowns Sans Frontieres.

Her first solo exhibit in 2008, sponsored by Womanhealth Philippines, was called “Batang Ina”, a photo documentary exhibit on the plight of teenage mothers in the Philippines. This documentary showed mothers who were below 18 years of age who were battling poverty, maternal mortality and in general, the lack of reproductive health and education. The documentary was first shown in Quezon City Hall and later, through the support of the Reproductive Health Network and the United Nations, was exhibited in the Congress of the Philippines.

Cristina’s documentary photographs on illegal demolitions around Manila was selected by the Goethe Institute among other Asian documentary works to be exhibited with former World Press Photo winner and juror Peter Bialobreszki called “Mapping Invisible Cities”. The photographs centered on displaced families and most of the subjects were women and children. Cristina was also selected by the Goethe Institute as one the two Filipinos who represented the Philippines to the exhibit launch in Jakarta, Indonesia. “Mapping Invisible Cities” has been exhibited all around Asia.

Together with two other women photographers (Gigie Cruz and Tammy David), Cristina documented the American environmental artist Ann Wizer who taught the women of Malibay, Pasay to create art, furniture and other profitable items from garbage. The collaboration resulted in an exhibit called “Invisible, Unseen Waste, Unseen People”, featuring the artwork of Ann Wizer, the craft of the women of Malibay, and the photography of Bilbao, Cruz and David. The exhibit was held at Galleria Duemila and at the International School in Manila.

Cristina continues to be a writer, producer, and director for television, while managing her business (cinematicbabies.com), teaching photography at the University of the Philippines during summers, and learning the ropes of her new role as a mother. The current subject of her photography work is her first child, Una.

Work from Cris Bilbao