A photograph is an object— or at least it used to be. As contemporary, everyday life persistently migrates onto the virtual realm, this erstwhile truism becomes less and less tenable. Rachel Rillo’s present series reaffirm photography’s object-ness. The collection nearly reads like a book, each piece akin to excerpts from a truncated manual that one understands even with the accompanying instructions withheld. From a crumpled piece of paper on Tyvek to a double image of a bare sardine can printed on aluminum, the photographs in flower flies mimic wasps showcase a calculated interplay of traditional studio techniques and in-camera effects, along with careful choice, indeed a rigorous pairing of subject matter and substrate, while on the whole sidestepping the easier route of desktop pixel manipulation. The deeper one looks, the clearer one sees that more than the pictured subject matter, the photographs speak more about the medium itself, its inherent mimetic abilities, its overlooked physicality and its yet inalienable capacity to register and simulate truth.
About the Artist
Rachel Rillo (b. 1973, Manila) returned to Manila in 2007 after a successful career as a freelance photographer for Los Angeles’ television industry. This 15-year gap allowed her an openess, a certain framing and patina to her images sensitive to the locus and yet one that inflects her history of skill. Rillo’s return came at a time when Contemporary Photography was starting to gain traction in the Philippine art scene as an art form, and her solo exhibitions Manila (2008), nominated for an Ateneo Art Award, Grain (2009), and Underneath the Floorboards (2010), helped redefine local views; her technical skill and knowledge placing her central to this movement through Silverlens galleries.
