Upgraded National Museum in Boac opens with Cholo Hidalgo Laurel's photo-exhibit, "Still"

"Still" photo-exhibit. Photo by Jonalyn Cornelio/NM FAD

The inaugural exhibition at the National Museum in Boac opens with Cholo Hidalgo Laurel's "Still".

Opening to the public today, February 28th at the National Museum in Boac, Marinduque, "Still" is an exhibition of fourteen photographs selected by filmmaker Cholo Hidalgo Laurel out of his archived 1,500 images. These illustrate travel photography as documentary and ethnography. 

Witness a Filipino's lens framing narratives during his journeys abroad in "Still". The photographs were first displayed in 2015 at the National Museum of Anthropology in Manila. He has since donated the photographs to the National Museum.

Mr. Laurel, whose mother is from Marinduque, has deep roots in the island. He lives part of the year while running a farm in Cawit, Boac. This project has special meaning to him not only because his exhibition launched the upgraded NM facility - a Spanish-era school house - but is dedicated to the late Governor Carmencita O. Reyes. It is an auspicious start to more exhibition programs encompassing ethnography, maritime heritage and natural history.

This is a fitting way to end #NationalArtsMonth2019atNM.

Source: The National Museum of the Philippines (2019)