Lita Puyat's Acclaimed Photos of Batanes Returns to Public View Via Art Fair

(SPOT.ph) Visitors to this weekend's Art Fair Philippines will encounter a rare glimpse into a vanishing world: eight photographs from Lita Puyat's acclaimed Batanes series, presented for the first time since their original exhibition at the Ayala Museum in 2000.

Batanes Revisited, on view at the fair's FotomotoPH booth at Circuit Makati, captures the Ivatan people and landscapes of the Philippines' northernmost island through the contemplative lens of medium-format film photography. Each image reveals what happens when a photographer steps away from commercial work and simply observes—lingering over light, gesture, and unhurried rhythms of island life.

The photographs transport us to a time and place before smartphones and instant image-making, when subjects stood unself-consciously before the camera, their dignity and warmth intact, in tranquil Batanes. Puyat's Ivatans welcome the lens without performance or pose, their faces and daily lives seen in a documentary yet deeply personal view.

Shot on a medium-format rangefinder film camera, the images embody a deliberate slowness: the photographer must look carefully, think intentionally, wait. Nothing is automatic. The series represents a pivotal moment in Puyat's artistic evolution. One of Manila’s most sought-after commercial photographers in the 90s, her work appeared simultaneously in museum exhibitions, fashion magazines, literary publications, print advertising, billboards along EDSA, and even supermarket shelves. In Batanes, she sought to create purely for herself. "Photographing for one's soul versus photographing for a client is like night and day," she says.

Unusual for a commercial photographer, Puyat is highly skilled in the traditional film darkroom, and produced exhibition quality silver gelatin exhibition prints in the pre-digital era. For contemporary viewers, these new archival pigment prints bring even more tonal richness and detail, bringing new vitality to the photographs. 

Puyat's career has spanned filmmaking, photography, culinary arts (she holds a Grand Diplôme from Le Cordon Bleu), real estate, and painting. She is currently building a comprehensive archive of her photographic work, visiting international photo fairs,  and working toward creating a photography museum in the Philippines.

Batanes Revisited is presented by FotomotoPH, a consortium dedicated to promoting photography as fine art in the Philippines. The group has exhibited at Art Fair Philippines since 2022 and this year showcases work by eleven photographers.