How The Face of a Marcos Apologist used subtlety, context, and photography to take over a botched revisionism campaign
Perhaps one of the hardest things to achieve in Photography is subtlety. All the viewer has is what’s inside the frame which the photographer chose to show. This is where context comes in. Context fills in the gaps of what can’t be shown in the frame. For photojournalism, it is usually in the caption or the event surrounding the photograph. For other genres, it is the "About the work" and the conditions that came in that compelled the creator to make the work. In Mac Andre Arboleda's "The face of a Marcos Apologist", the context of his thought and the subtlety of his execution comes in the form of a PR campaign gone awry.
The idea behind the photo zine came in when PR firm, Publicity Asia, made a Twitter hashtag campaign for the grandchild of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Sandro Marcos. Send your selfie and you might win a date with the Marcos grandson. And so the #WinADateWithSandro became a trending topic with different types of people of almost all the gender identities participating for a chance to win the date. With the hashtag gaining traction, it caught the attention of activists and the general public voicing out their opinion on the inappropriate PR campaign. It was bombarded with Memes, one-liner, and other blatant forms of protest. Arboleda, on the other hand, responded in a different manner. He ran the profile photos of those who participated in the contest in a software to come up with an averaged face. The result is the photo zine The face of a Marcos Apologist.
The Zine is subtle in its presentation. The design is straightforward and the profile pictures are neatly shown. Some have accompanying tweets which express their desire to win. It all concludes with the Average face. The zine neither makes grand proclamations nor it shames those who joined the contest. It didn't hurl insults, malice, or a litany of facts. There is no emotion or anger in the work. The subtlety is within the execution of the context. It puts forward the absurdity of the entire situation: Thousands, with Sandro Marcos included, choosing to turn a blind eye to the atrocities of the Marcos dictatorship for the sake of a publicity stunt disguised as a date.
All of this is accomplished without Arboleda holding up a camera to his face. Perhaps a contention for a purist to consider it as a true photo zine. He did not seek out and photograph these people on his own to get an accurate average. However, to do that for this work is to dismiss the gravity of the event. This work is not about getting an accurate average face but wielding the context like a bludgeon to those who do not understand. This subversion from pure photography comes in not only in the absence of a camera but in the claims of critics and artists that have no idea with what to do with the stream of images flowing around the internet. Arboleda's response to that crisis is to find the proper context and twist the material into a personal archive. That way, it resonates and impacts the audiences with no need to stand on a soapbox.
This is why I believe that in photography, context is king. For this case, context doesn't just provide the background for the work. It also gave it the right moment to thrive. To achieve subtlety in this context is the what makes this work well. If there wasn’t a failed PR stunt, the work would simply be a witty protest. Arboleda’s hijacking of the campaign and making sense of the images elevated the work into visual art. I would go on to say that it isn't about the result of the average face. Despite the various discussions I have heard that it looks like Sandro’s Aunt, Imee Marcos, or any other public figure which will undoubtedly add more to the work. It doesn’t matter who it looks like but rather what this average represents. The usage of that term is special here. To me, it is a double usage of the word average: the numerical mean and the ordinary. These are Average Joes and Janes disconnected from facts and history. The meaning of the word and The resulting face symbolizes that despite the time has passed since the Marcos reign, there is a lot that needs to be done to change the average understanding of what those events were and why people are accepting of it.
Photography can be sly, simple, and comedic but it is always painful as a reminder. The face of a Marcos apologist shows us that there is so much more is needed to be done.
(The copy used for this analysis is the original 1st edition Zine. If you want to have a copy for yourself, you may check a colored edition published by Hard Working Good Looking. Part of the Zines of Production book available here.)
Title: The Face of a Marcos Apologist
Photographer/Creator/Practitioner: Mac Andre Arboleda
Medium: Photography Zine. A4 Bond Paper. Saddle Stitched.Photocopied (8.5 x 5.5in)
