Oral History of Romeo Gacad

By Anna Isabel C. Rodriguez

Isa: My name is Anna Isabel Rodriguez and I'm here to interview Mr. Romeo Gacad. For the record sir, could you please state your name and present employment?

Mr. Gacad: My name is Romeo Gacad. I am the chief photographer of Agence France-Presse

Q: Okay, so for the first question, how do you describe what it is that you do?

A: My work?

Q: Yes, your work

A: Well, so photojournalist we cover (current events) here in Manila, being in charge of what's happening here in the Philippines and in the other parts of the region, in Asia and Mindanao. As chief photographer I’m responsible for delivering, covering pictures of breaking news in Manila as well as events in Mindanao, news about President Gloria Arroyo, politics, environment, human interest and interesting personalities.

Q: So, almost everything?

A: Almost everything because Agence France Presse is an international news agency. So when it comes to news anywhere from human interest to politics to conflict, bloody wars..

Q: How did you get into photography? What influenced you?

A: It’s a long story but just to make it short it started as a simple interest. My brother bought his camera. I saw it and I got to use it and I got to borrow my brother's camera. Right away I was fascinated kasi I was taking pictures and then having developed and I can see my pictures. Then my brother-in-law taught me basic darkroom techniques. So I was shooting and printing my own pictures so that even made my interest stronger because I shoot what I can see. From then on so I got hooked and fascination turned into passion and that is when I finally got my own camera. In high school I became the photographer for the school paper, that was in the third year. In the fourth year I became editor of the newspaper. In college I decided to take up Fine Arts, major in Visual Arts.

Q: So all the while you were geared towards being a photojournalist?

A: Well, I have these thoughts of enrolling in the college of architecture but then I think the Fine Arts became more of my interest and it's related to what my main interest is which is photography so I took up visual communication which is graphic design and photography is one of the subjects for two semesters which is basically (..) but when I took up the photography course I had enough knowledge about what is basic and what is advanced.

Q: How about your brother? Did he become a photographer?

A: My brother, no he was just a, he’s happy snapping pictures and shooting, he’s an engineer so he travels all the time and he was carrying his camera and there were times na its just there in the house no? (…)

Q: Okay so, what made you decide that you wanted to be a photojournalist? That you wanted it to be your profession?

A: Since I started shooting, and uh theres something in photography, can I say, that I fell in love with or I think it’s the medium which is well at the time its not that instantaneous parang you take the picture and it starts with a simple thing like shooting your classmate or your friends or your mom or your dad or your brother, sister so I had fun but then as I was looking at my pictures parang I begin to see that im telling stories with what with my photograph and that’s where I what happens why (..) so I looked at them and studied and how I can improve the pictures. So basically photography for me is self study and I went to photojournalism most of the time. So I bought this bargain photography magazines, modern photography, popular photography, they were just selling it for, at the time, 5 pesos, 10 pesos, and the film at the time was very cheap so black and white something like 5 pesos also, 7 pesos and it was fun. Being in the darkroom also, its another experience that you guys now, you don’t.. kasi its creating your own picture

Q: They just removed the darkroom

A: Yeah

Q: ..in our course

A: Now its gone

Q: Yeah

A: With the new digital camera, everything is simplified, the process has been simplified tremendously.

Q: So, um, okay, How were you able to penetrate the industry, from photography being your hobby to being a serious photojournalist?

A: Well I was a photographer for the school paper so talagang I put my heart into photography and a that was the start of my career then becoming the editor, then taking up Fine Arts, visual communication, parang it honed my artistic skills in the medium. So we learn about composition, we learn about style, we learn about light, we learn about visual perception which is very important when it comes to being a photographer. And then theres you if you get to study the courses in humanities and which gives you a whole or rounded knowledge of the visual arts so fine arts I would apply the artistry, standards in my picture.

Q: So,

A: Oh yes, artistry (..)

Q: So, okay, moving on to journalism in the Philippines, Describe your typical day and how is it different now from before, the early years of journalism..

And to the present?

Q: Yes the present

A: Well, at the time, you know, everything is film, processed, so the basic comparison for this, for you to produce pictures that are to be published, with the film camera, it would take one, or from the time you used to take the picture, you develop and you have it printed and to send the picture to our international clients, so its something 30 minutes to 45 minutes, but with the digital technology, everything is so fast, yeah, it’s a lot faster and in fact one of the Olympic games that I covered and world cup to ah, that I covered, it would take at least from the time you take a picture and the picture will land in the newspaper, just ten to 15 minutes.

Q: Fast ah

A: Yes, That is the technology now.

Q: Wow..

A: With the digital camera

Q: But then, Do you think that, there are perks but in making the whole process faster but then do you think that there’s something lost in the art, because of digitalization? You say that its very fun in the dark room, what do you think got lost, did you think something did or it was like..

A: No, its not lost in a way na talagang lost, how do I say this, its not total lost, in fact, its more like trying to satisfy the demands of time, basically the publication kasi they want news in pictures and immediately that fast so yung ganoong demand, digital technology, is the answer, and the only thing is when it comes to film, digital compared to film, film is something more permanent, digital, unless you have the proper set up, you have a back up system, you have this terabyte files where you can store your mountains of pictures, in one month I will normally have a mountain of digital pictures, something happens to your hard disk, so all your pictures, gone. That’s the sad part. But then you have invested so much that you have to protect your files, your duplicate, then make sure that if one goes down, you have a back up system. But with the film, the film is something permanent. You keep it in the proper archival condition so that it can last a hundred years, even more, now you see a card, a dvd, ten years after so who knows no? Getting smaller, smaller dvds, so that’s the advantage and disadvantage.

Q: So, one by one could you please state the names of the newspapers or agencies you were employed in and for how long you were working in each.

A: I started as a, well, in UP, I became the photographer for the Philppine Collegian, that was sometime 78 and that was the time where the Martial Law was close to the end, There’s so..

I was still there, I was still there in UP during that time, in the college of law

A: So the time na talagang, that was a very interesting period of when I started in photography, parang the period from 76 when I entered college hanggang 83 (..) Marcos, the daily protests and you have this issues on insurgencies all these stories I did, I was in the Collegian, Spent one year with the government, with the Ministry of Human Settlements, That was for Imelda Marcos, but I told myself, ill have one year (…) but it was a good experience because it brought me around the country, Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao. I was basically shooting mga ano, mga housing projects of Imelda Marcos, especially the (..) of the housing project, ofcourse one year, so tama na yun. I started doing freelance again working for alternative publication like Mrs. Who magazine, (…) and then Mr. and Miss, those publications, and these are the, tawag ni Marcos dun, the mosquito press. I think the issue there is there is a semblance of press freedom, you check how much circulation does this publication have, just a few thousand so part of (…) giving freedom but very limited. So from there, I did some freelance work. I became a stringer for Associated Press and also became a photographer for Sigma Picture Agency, these a based in New York, Paris and London, so I was doing assignment for them and that time I made my first cover of Newsweek magazine for Sigma News Agency, it was Marcos and Imelda in an Independence parade in Luneta, it was after, or was it before the Sandiganbayan case ni Ninoy. So from then on, 83, I was freelancing, but then 85 I joined Agence France Presse.

Q: So you’ve been there since?

A: Yes, ever since. 85 to the present. That’s more than 22 years.

Q: Okay so, during the early years, what was it like in, what was it like, what was journalism like? Lets start with physical location, the offices they had..

A: Early years?

Q: Yeah

A: Well early years, what was (..)?

Q: I think they were all near intramuros?

A: Sorry?

Q: Intramuros? And the piers?

A: Oh, well, newspapers, yes. They are based in Manila, most of them Intramuros parang it’s a very convenient location and they have their printing press and the office at the same time. The place offers them the (…) And you have the National Press club but theats the newspaper.. The international news agency most of them were also in Manila at that time until mga later on so they all left manila and moved too Makati, etc.

Q: So moving on, There are such things as cub reporters, are there anything similar to photojourrnalists?

A: Oh yeah, youre (…), a Greenhorn. You get to be initiated by your editors or by your superiors. So superiors and collegues..

Q: So were you ever one of then and what were your experiences as one?

A: Well, not really kasi I know what I was doing so theres not, but I encourage students to do that in journalism, its something like you still don’t know your direction so you enter that job or profession not knowing very well what to expect. But, in my case, I know what im doing, I know what I want and then I relate to people around me. People around me, colleages and the subjects and my stories.

Q: What about your first beat? What was it?

A: The first beat? First beat at the time yun yung protesta period, almost everyday, theres a demonstration, Mendiola, then theres a lot of back biting issues yung mga press violation, election of (…) Ninoy and (…) so.. What was it again?

Q: What was your first beat? So?

A: First beat, oo, protest, a lot of protests.and pag may protests parang its something na if your just a plain photographer you try to cover the protest without really knowing the issue. I think you wont come up with a very strong work or strong pictures. Its important for the journalist and the photographer that what are the issues that he’s covering so you’ll have a way na popost mo yung picture in a way that the viewers will better understand. Its difficult when somebody who doesn’t understand he goes there, stands in one place or one position, takes pictures and then goes back to the office, parang ganun. I know of some photographers who are that way. So its important you have an indepth knowledge of..

Q: How about how journalists relate to their editors, what are their attitudes or deadlines?

A: Well, theres this saying na parang Photographers are second class in the media industry and theres that kind of sentiment. Now I think its improved. Photographers have shown that pictures can tell more stories. As they say no, a picture is worth a thousand words. Kay but then you must have the ability of coming up with a picture that will tell the whole story, kasi in one picture, theres, it’s the story telling value of one photograph.

Q: Ok so, lets go to your experiences as a photographer or journalist. What were your best memories as a young photojournalist?

A: Yeah, well since, something young, (…) I think it was the most interesting period of contemporary Filipino history, di ba? Your dad would say..

That’s true!

A: Diba Atty?

Yeah, yeah.

A: Kasi compared right now diba? Its at the time when the whole country tried to change the government, oppose Marcos, I think it brought the good and the bad to everybody eh. In that period, as a photographer, as a journalist, what you learn in school, you learn more in the street, in theory than in practice. All these protests you do almost everyday and the Ninoy, I think that was the turning point of everyone being (…) Its hard to be detached no? At the same time that’s a professional.. you must be objective fair, you must present both sides. But then, the sentiment was so strong parang you trying to share the same issues but you have to stop at some point so.. or you’ll end up being accused as biased.

But that was the (…) period, 76 to the present, the other interesting assignment that I did was the three US wars that I covered. In 1991, I was there in, I spent two months traveling in Turkey, which Is the northern border of Iraq then finally we went to Kuwait after.. and then the second war, was the war on terror in Afghanistan after the 9/11 in New York. So when I was assigned to get myself to Afghanistan, so I was waiting for the right time in Pakistan, waiting for the right moment. The Mujahideen fighters and that was stopped because I had four close calls. I was there in Tora Bora, Well, Tora Bora is the place where Americans and the Mujahideen were hunting Osama Bin Laden. It was reported that in the mountains of Tora Bora. Anyway, theyre shelling, theyre bombing, its quiet then suddenly its going to fight. I was in one of the captured camp of the Taliban. And then I decided to stay behind when the others left, and we were in a bunker together with the other Mujahideen and just about ten or twenty meters from the bunker there was this tree na very (….) those are the legendary Mujahideen who fought with the Taliban. I went down and stood there trying to take a picture when I heard a gunshot so I looked towards where the gunshot came from and the bullet just landed 6 inches from my foot. There was a sniper.

Q: Trying to shoot you?

Trying to kill me.

A: Okay.

Q: So I run and everybody runs towards the bunker and I just waited until (…) and that’s it,

Mr. Romeo Gacad was born on October 3, 1959 in Quezon City. He attended the University of the Philippines College of Fine arts where he majored in Visual Arts. At the time of the interview, he was chief photographer of the AFP.