The Power of Photographs

Pulitzer Prize winner reminds us of our fight for democracy

Kim Komenich

For those of us who were there, and those among us who were too young to remember, one vivid way to look back and learn about the EDSA People Power Revolution in 1986 is through the lens of renowned photo journalist Kim Komenich. 

Komenich was assigned to cover what was to become the historic bloodless revolution on EDSA by the San Francisco Examiner. 

In an interview with The Manila Times, he revealed, "It is the only story in my career that I felt had such a sense of witnessing history."

His photographs are currently on exhinit at the Ayala Museum. Titled “Revolution Revisited,” the exhibit will run until March 5 together with the first leg of “Looking Back: 1986 People Power at EDSA.”  that features items from the Aquino Museum in Tarlac.

The 54-year-old Komenich’s collection of black and white photographs date even before People Power specifically in 1984 and 1985, when as he recalled “things were getting worse and worse,” under the leadership of then-President Ferdinand Marcos.

“What I saw [in those three years] were people living in a democracy that was being abused. And there was a point with [the assassination of] Ninoy Aquino that caused these people collectively to become angry enough at their 'democracy' and what their president has done with it to take to the streets. And that was powerful,” Komenich stated.

By his count, Komenich used a total of 800 rolls of film--equivalent to 22,000 pieces of photographs--during his assignment in the Philippines. Together with reporter Phil Bronstein, he covered the manipulation of sugar prices in Negros, the National People’s Army and Father Conrado Balweg, the Smokey Mountain, poverty, malnutrition and of course politics—"things," that according to the photographer, he never saw back home.

Pultzer prize

Komenich’s coverage of the EDSA Revolution won him the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography. He was able to produce effective pictures that later on, he realized he could enter to Pulitzer Prize in 1986.

“But while I was working with the story, I wasn’t out to win it," he clarified. "I was just to do a very thorough job. That was my goal. And I couldn’t get enough of it. I was in a stage of my life that I was so driven to take pictures.”

He felt strongly then that the events were "coming together as a very important part of Philippine history." And as a journalist, he was on a high and his instinct was to shoot it from every angle to capture every story. 

The icons' son

President Benigno Aquino 3rd graced the opening of Komenich's exhibit on February 21. He said in his speech saying “From the People Power monument to the EDSA shrine, the images that fill the Ayala Museum today remind us of that time in our history: a time of hope, of miracles, of the power of the people.”

Komenich told The Times he believes President Aquino couldn't be more prepared for the job for the very fact that hes is the son of the icons of People Power, Ninoy and Cory Aquino, and because he witnessed EDSA firsthand.

Komenich was also happy to note that when the President saw one of his photographs of his mother, the former President working on a desk inside Malacañang. Mr. Aquino remarked that the same desk is now in his office. To which Komenich said, “The desk is still alive and well.”

Beyond EDSA

Komenich also disclosed that following the exhibit, he will also release a book, an iPad application and a movie version of Revolution Revisited. The film will show subjects he captured during the lead up to People Power 25 years ago and where they are today. 

He started searching for these subjects in 2009 and has since located 15 people. One farmer is now a barangay captain; a 7-year-old girl who was living in a cemetery still lives in a cemetery, now with three children; the parents of a boy that died from malnutrition; and a little girl from a sakada farm.

Of the more prominent faces in the movie are former First Lady Imelda Marcos, former President Fidel Ramos and the President's sister Pinky Aquino-Abellada.

The movie's date of release is on August 21, Ninoy Aquino’s assasination.

Komenich, who is now a professor at San Jose State University, shared that the driving force behind his Revolution Revisited projects is his desire to “give back” to the people whose lives he caught on camera. Even if a journalist's role he described, is to "keep on moving to the next story," he is taking this time to look back as his way of thanking those he met towards the journey to EDSA.

Elaborating he said “It’s about being grateful on how this country helped me grow as a photo journalist.”

And in turn, through his photographs, generations to come will hopefully grow as well in giving importance to the freedom that was won on the streets of EDSA 25 years ago. 

*Article was first published for The Manila Times, February 25, 2011.