we will have been young

Photography Exhibition

July 25 to August 25, 2018

Mabini Projects
1335 A. Mabini St., Ermita, Manila, Philippines

Goethe-Institut brings Photography Exhibition about Youth and the Future

Look into an interpretation of the youth and the future through the lenses of twelve young Southeast Asian photographers in an exhibit brought to you by Goethe-Institut, the OBSCURA Festival of Photography and the Ostkreuz Agentur der Fotografen. The exhibition entitled “we will have been young” will be on display this July 25 to August 25, 2018, at Mabini Projects, Ermita, Manila. There will also be an artist talk on August 18, 2018, 4pm, at the Mabini Projects, with the two Filipino photographers, Geric Cruz and Dennese Victoria, whose works are included in the exhibition.

“we will have been young” is a product of the Southeast Asian Photography Masterclass 2016-17 in Penang, Malaysia where young photographers from Southeast Asia met for a workshop to produce photographic essays under the mentorship of two renowned German photographers, Jörg Brüggemann and Tobias Kruse of the Ostkreuz Photographer’s Agency in Berlin. It showcases works by:

– Alvin Lau “Is This What Love Is” (Malaysia),
– Amrita Chandradas “All is Not Lost” (Singapore),
– Muhammad Fadli “Vespa Warriors” (Indonesia),
– Dennese Victoria “Day Spent with Pretend Family” (Philippines),
– Dwi Asrul Fajar “A Stream Under the Table” (Indonesia),
– Elliott Koon “Sons of the Soil” (Malaysia),
– Geric Cruz “Eva” (Philippines),
– Kanel Khiev “Before the Raze” (Cambodia),
– Lee Chang Ming “Until Then” (Singapore),
– Linh Pham “Behind Closed Doors” (Vietnam),
– Watsamon Tri-yasakda “7465” (Thailand), and
– Yu Yu Myint Than “Memory Lane” (Myanmar).

The series of images in “we will have been young” have a common topic – youth and the future. It captures a socio-cultural kaleidoscope of the life of the young people in the vibrant context of economic progress and globalization in those Southeast Asian countries. The visual stories deal with diverse issues – online dating and the transformation of relationships, illnesses and their psychological effects, family constellations and identities, nostalgia and transience, social housing and urbanization, psycho-social challenges, the marginalization of Aboriginal people, homosexuality and the search for a sense of belonging, club scenes as a sign of revolt, creative Vespa clubs, gender-identity in school children, abuse and the longing for a feeling of home.

“Youth is a universal subject; photography is a universal language.” said Brüggemann and Kruse, mentors of the Southeast Asian Photography Masterclass. They see photography as a cultural practice which does not just portray social conditions, but furthermore reflects on and challenges them. Thus, it gives them pride to have the twelve young photographers reveal through the exhibition what it means to be young in Southeast Asia in this day and age.

“we will have been young” was launched at the OBSCURA Festival of Photography 2017 in Malaysia and is currently travelling in Southeast Asia and onwards to the Asia-Pacific region and Germany. It has recently been in Singapore and Indonesia making Philippines its third stop.