Message of Senator Loren Legarda New Beginnings: Philippine Photographic Art

I welcome you all tonight to an exhibition that is more of a conversation spanning continents, a dialogue between the Philippines and Germany that transcends language, geography, and time.

Under the banner of “The Imagination Peoples the Air,” the Philippines takes center stage at the Frankfurter Buchmesse 2025, and tonight, through the lens of Filipino ingenuity, we present to you a part of our cultural program, the exhibition “New Beginnings: Philippine Photographic Art.” The photographs on display are representations of light and shadow that have created an atmosphere of narratives, voices demanding to be heard, and realities waiting for recognition.

My heartfelt congratulations to the curators, Patrick Flores, Andrea Horvay, and Celina Lunsford. This work embodies what I have long believed about the relationship between understanding each other as individuals and cultivating culture. Culture is not mere adornment, but a vital engine that drives understanding between peoples.
Waiting for you to experience in this gallery is more than photography; it is the art of presence. Through the perspectives of artists Tommy Hafalla, Gina Osterloh, Nana Buxani, MM Yu, Veejay Villafranca, Wawi Navarroza, Augustine Paredes, and Xyza Cruz Bacani you will be introduced to the narrative of an archipelago, carrying stories of 7,641 islands, the knowledge of 135 languages, and experiences of people shaped by centuries of movement and migrations to shape this human experience.

These photographs reveal many of the challenges beyond a national lens. In an era where the world grapples with questions of migration, identity, and belonging, this exhibition of Philippine photographic art offers not answers, but raises necessary questions – What does it mean to be at home in the world? How do we live our humanity amid these moments of displacement? How do we protect memory while moving forward through inevitable change?

These artists are creating connections not just across cultures but also between the past, the present, and the future, between what was lived today and what will be known in history tomorrow.

As you immerse yourself in this exhibition, I invite you to let these photographs show you that these stories belong to you as well, stories of displacement and belongingness, of tradition and transition, and the pursuit of home in a world that is knowing itself as whole yet fractured as well.

Thank you, and may you enjoy the New Beginnings.