Teodulo Protomartir is recognized as a vanguard of Philippine photography despite the meager biographical research on his life. More information has come to light from the generous input of those who knew him and followed his work since I turned the article in to the editors. I hope to include those bits in the next article about him. This is an ongoing project and I would like to credit the following for their help in this initial effort.Thank you to David Everitt Howe and Minh Nguyen of Pioneer Works, Katya Guerrero of Luzviminda.ph, Silverlens Gallery, and Nap Jamir Jr. The rest are credited in the article.
“In Teodulo Protomartir’s After the Parade, a man rests under a sampaloc (tamarind) tree on the sidelines of a public ceremony that marked the official end of US colonization of the Philippine Islands on July 4, 1946. The man is glancing at something offscreen and away from the events on the grandstand, which are signposted by a Philippine flag flying aloft in the center of the image. Unlike in mainstream documentation of the Philippine Independence ceremony created by journalistic wire photos and official government footage, Protomartir’s camera moves along with the crowd. In another photo, After the Celebration, subjects that would be typically centered in such photographs — the US Army jeeps, the Philippine and American flags flapping mid-air, the burned out buildings of the Bayview and Luneta hotels — recede in the background, behind the real subject: the crowd’s point of view.”
Geronimo Cristobal 