SPOTLIGHT: Master NES Santiago

by Corinne Blanco

Let’s start with a story.

Several years ago, Master Nes and his wife Dada flew to Queenstown, New Zealand to visit their daughter, who was then recovering from a stroke. Apparently, Master Nes has a habit of setting out for a walk at dawn, with his camera in tow, and finding his way back home at around 8am. On his first morning in New Zealand, he did just that except that he didn’t return by 8am. Nor by 9. By 10am Dada alerted her son-in-law and they woke up her daughter (yes, the one recovering from the stroke!) and not knowing what else to do, they were all set to call the police when they spotted Master Nes in the distance. He was rounding the bend at the foot of the hill, slowly making his way back to the house, taking more photos along the way, waving at them cheerfully from afar and totally oblivious to the time and the state of near-panic he had put his family through.

Nes Santiago. Master Nes to us. So in love with his photography; so immersed in the world around him!

His love affair with photography started in the early 1980’s when his eldest sister lent him her simple film camera. He started taking photos of leaves in their backyard and then, in spite of—or maybe because of—the fact that the photographs were in black and white, Master Nes’ attention was drawn to the lines, shapes, and textures of the leaves, not realizing at the time that he was tutoring himself in the elements of photographic art.

This should not come as a surprise though, because before Master Nes became a photographer, he was an educator. He taught for 39 years at the Ateneo Grade School, handling Science, Language, Social Studies, Reading and Pilipino classes from 4^th to 7^th grade. He also held the position of Coordinator of the Computer Center of the Ateneo Grade School. Among his many students were celebrities Gabby Concepcion, Eric Quizon and yes, Al Panlilio! And while they never got to sit in a class taught by Master Nes, Dodie Legaspi and Mike Olivares must have crossed paths with the Master somewhere along the AGS hallways!

It was in 1987 that Master Nes joined the Zone V Camera Club. After viewing a Zone V exhibit at Ali Mall early that year, he explored the possibility of joining the club and in August he submitted his first entries as a probationary member. The theme was “A Day in a Life” and one of his entries won second place! Three years later, Master Nes bagged the Photographer of the Year award, his first of four (1990, 1992, 2003, 2008). It was after his third POTY win that members started calling him “Master Nes”. An Olympus user, he proudly states that he was the only POTY of his day (or perhaps to date?) who won using a camera system outside of the dominant Canon-Nikon brands. His current camera is an Olympus OM-1.

Being an Olympus user myself, my “close encounters” with Master Nes have been of the “phone-a-friend” variety. Every so often while out in the field, I find myself stumped and am unable to make my camera do what I want it to do. So I have Master Nes’ number on speed dial! Once I even sent him a text message all the way from Taiwan—a message he quickly responded to.

Master Nes has had no formal training in photography although he has attended several seminars. For the most part, he is self-taught. Early influences in his photography journey were Life Magazine and National Geographic. The photos he saw in these publications set the standard he sought to aspire for and that led him to buy photography books to help him learn concepts like composition and the art of seeing.

An incident in 1987—yes, the same year he started with ZVCC—left a deep impression upon him. Intent on learning more about photography, he attended a seminar sponsored by the Camera Club of the Philippines. And who did he find himself sitting next to? The Jaime Zobel de Ayala! They chatted briefly in between sessions and Don Jaime proved to be quite the encourager. But something Master Nes did not expect was a package delivered to his workplace a few days later, sent to him by Don Jaime! The package contained three of Zobel’s coffee table books, each one beautifully autographed. The gesture and the experience inspired Master Nes even more to keep on learning and honing his skill in the art of photography.

But what he credits as the factor that played the biggest role in his journey as a photographer is his having joined the Zone V Camera Club. Joining the monthly contests over several years helped him improve on his skills and develop his own creative style with the help and encouragement of both the club members and the contest judges. And then, of course, there was always that atmosphere of healthy competition and camaraderie that made for the perfect environment for him to grow as an artist and a photographer.

Master Nes’ current passion is bird photography. In years past he specialized in landscapes and images portraying human interest. But in 2013 Arnel Macariola invited him and Jonas Liwag to join him in exploring the world of bird photography. Master Nes found a new love. They started out in places like the La Mesa EcoPark and the UP campus, then ventured further off to Infanta and Bangkong Kahoy, Quezon. Yet by far, the highlight of Master Nes’ bird photography adventures has been participating in the International Bird Photography Race in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, an annual race he joined from 2013 to 2018.

Master Nes has amassed quite a collection of awards and trophies over the years, winning in both local and international competitions. But somehow winning the ZVCC POTY distinction four times is special to him because while competitions—even the most prestigious of them—recognize the excellence of a single photograph, the Photographer of the Year award recognizes the pursuit of excellence over an entire year, which is no mean feat when one is competing against similarly talented individuals.

To the current crop of ZVCC members and probees, here are a few words of wisdom from the Master: “George Perkins Marsh once said that ‘Sight is a faculty; Seeing is an art’; so as artists let us stay open, be aware and dare to go beyond the box. Your talent is God’s gift to you; what you do with it is your gift back to God”.