A photographic throwback of the Western Visayan region during the American colonization
Over the past several years, there has been a growing enthusiasm for learning Iloilo’s history. That is largely thanks to burgeoning online communities. But in an online world though, facts and figures may be perceived as dull. It is imagery—photographs—that can engage others to learn more of Iloilo’s past.
The recently released Casanave: An American Photographer in Iloilo by Nereo Cajilig Lujan is a rich source of additional learning about Iloilo. The book published by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) looks mainly into the works and life of Pedro Andres Casanave, an American photographer and painter who lived in Iloilo for 37 years.
Nereo was able to cull out Casanave’s 136 photographs from libraries, museums, private collectors, and various digital collections. The photographs are a visual documentation of Iloilo, with snippets of Ilonggo life from the onset of the American colonial period and until the beginning of World War II.
“His works and his life would be intertwined with the history of Iloilo,” Nereo explains. Nereo tries to piece together the stories behind the photographs to bring connectivity to what Iloilo and the people were like in that period of time. Casanave was able to extensively document Iloilo’s landmarks that still exist, albeit from a different era. There is familiarity yet a different look to the Arroyo Fountain, the old Iloilo Provincial Capitol, the Prison of Iloilo (which is now a branch of the National Museum of the Philippines), St. Paul’s Hospital, Iloilo Mission Hospital, Muelle Loney, the Iloilo Customs House, the Jaro Cathedral, the Jaro Belfry, the plaza of Jaro with the statue of Graciano Lopez Jaena and the old Jaro Municipal Hall in the background, the Ynchausti y Compañia Building (now the Museum of Philippine Economic History), the Miag-ao Church, the Nelly Garden, the Lizares Mansion, or the campuses of Central Philippine University or the University of San Agustin.
Casanave was able to also photograph the landmarks that Iloilo lost—the Oton Church that was destroyed in the 1948 earthquake known as “Lady Caycay” or the hangar of the Iloilo-Negros Air Express Company (INAEC) that was bombed by the Japanese during World War II. Casanave also had portraits of key government officials, business leaders, the clergy, and the who’s who—all of whom could afford to get his photographic services.
But more than Iloilo’s landmarks or key personalities, Casanave also photographed the ordinary people of Iloilo and their livelihood, weaving piña cloth, farming, salt-making, or marine transportation. The book is also a biographical sketch of the American photographer and painter, who first came to the country in 1899 as a soldier at the onset of the Philippine-American War and would leave the country after World War II.
The book is also a biographical sketch of the American photographer and painter, who first came to the country in 1899 as a soldier at the onset of the Philippine-American War and would leave the country after World War II.
Nereo, a former journalist, admits the book is not a complete picture of Iloilo’s history during that time. But in a way, the book highlights the role of photography in Iloilo’s historiography. Casanave’s works are an added body of photographic images of Iloilo during the colonial period.
Felix Laureano, who was believed to be the first Filipino photographer, also opened a photography studio in Iloilo City during the mid-1880s. Laureano, who was born in the town of Patnongon in Antique province, would later move to Spain. Researcher Frank Villanueva’s work also highlighted the significance of Laureano’s work in terms of documenting life in Iloilo and the rest of Panay Island.