Artist: Nico Sepe in collaboration with The Rainbow Room Foundation
Selected by: Special project’s BACC pop⋅up

What can eight seconds reveal about an individual? The profound silence within those moments, The profound silence within those moments, seemingly endless, blends with the lighting, a smile, and an unintentional or intentional glance, creating portraits that engage in an everlasting conversation with the viewer.

 

In today’s fast-paced world, portrait photography can be quick, allowing for reshoots and adjustments to cater to the photographer’s and the subject’s preferences. However, wet-plate collodion portraits process is quite the opposite. It involves a meticulous process that demands time, including preparing equipment, cutting glass to size, mixing solutions, and creating a suitable environment to capture a meaningful moment. Each press of the shutter, an image is permanently etched onto glass, impossible to be replicated. This method requires the utmost focus. During the 8-second exposure, the photographer and subject must merge their emotions to let light illuminate the chemically treated glass, imprinting the individual’s essence onto the image. In these eight seconds, the core of the portrait is the “person”, who must remain completely still, allowing only light and air to move around. The careful preparation and contemplation are infused with intense attentiveness, a shared intention between both parties. The wet-plate collodion images radiate a strong sense of co-intention and determination.

 

The authenticity that was imprinted in the glass of these images is the “pure beauty” beyond vanity as Nico Sepe, the photographer of this exhibition said.

 

The “8 seconds” exhibition is a part of “Co-Labs: The Collaboration” project, a series of collaborations among artists in three mini-projects. This experimental initiative explores diverse art-making process, creating a limitless laboratory where artists inspire each other and interact with various materials.

 

The resulting collaborations were exhibited at Bangkok Arts and Culture Centre from March to May 2021.

 

Pracamkrong Pongpaiboon Vajiravarabhakti

 

Nico Sepe (Philippines)

Nico Sepe’s full-time commitment to photography started in the 70’s, documenting lives in the underground movement during the latter years of the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines (1980’s) Since then, Sepe has contributed significantly to documenting the social and political changes. Most assignments were commissioned by non-government organizations but his desire to photograph realities led him to fund some of the documentaries himself. Co-founder of CENTERPHOTO (Center for Documentary Photography now known as Philippine Center for Photojournalists) and former Senior Staff of different newspapers and magazines in the Philippines: A Journey through the Archipelago, the Philippine Navy’s Tides of Change, the University of the Philippines’s Sipat and Ateneo de Manila University’s Chinese-Filipino book, exceptional calendar projects, collective exhibitions, his one-man shows and continues to do documentaries. He is currently based in United Kingdom.

 

Solo exhibitions includes Santa Elena slum area 1987 (Heritage Gallery, Manila, Philippines) Dugong Bughaw 1997 (Oarhouse Malate, Manila, Philippines) Lambat Buhay-Small scale fisherfolks 1997 (Casa San Miguel Arts Center, Zambales, Philippines) Parallels-In Between Lives 2007 (Barbican Theater, Plymouth, United Kingdom) Simply Sri Lanka 2010 (Colombo, Sri Lanka) SILVER Gelatin Prints 2014 (RMA Gallery Bangkok, Thailand). 

 

The Rainbow Room is a non-profit special needs awareness center. We are parents, families and friends of individuals with developmental and behavioral special needs, including Down Syndrome, Autism, Asperger’s, PDD-NOS, Cerebral Palsy, ADHD and other genetic challenges. We raise positive awareness through sharing of information, experiences, encouragement and empowerment, using “Parent-to-Parent” model.

 

We encourage independence, confidence and pride in the individual differences. Our goal is to inspire better opportunity through community acceptance.

 

We are your companion on this special journey.