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Sonny Yabao, the Philippines’ first ‘real’ photo editor, passes away at 77

Article (news)

Fernando G Sepe Jr

ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/life/02/13/sonny-yabao-the-first-real-photo-editor-in-ph-1.jpg" class="fr-fil fr-dib"/><figcaption>Sonny Yabao, Los Baños, November 2015. <em>Photo by Fernando G. Sepe Jr.</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>As Sonny Yabao lifted my processed roll of 35mm film to view it through the loupe, the feeling was like waiting for the results of a lab exam at the hospital.</p><p>Handing over the roll to Yabao gave me the creeps, as thoughts of having at least one of only 36 frames passing his standards circled my mind.</p><p>When he put it in the negative carrier and lifted the enlarger, you knew he had made a choice, and it was not very often that that choice did not make it to print.</p><p>That was in the defunct newspaper, Newsday, in 1991 and it was my first formal work. I was a &quot;newbie&quot; having just graduated in 1990, although I have been covering the news since 1985 as a campus photojournalist for the Philippine Collegian.</p><p>I don&#x27;t know of any other head of the photo section before that time who had the role of a true photo editor — someone treated by text editors as one of their own.</p><p>A photo editor whose &quot;language&quot; of photography was respected by his peers and would defer to him on decisions pertaining to photography in the same weight as he would defer to their expertise on the written word.</p><p>Perhaps it was his background and the reputation he had built that earned him the respect of his fellow journalists in the newsroom.</p><p>Presciano Yabao was born and raised in Catbalogan, Samar as the only child of a coconut farmer and a dressmaker. <em>(reference: <a href="https://www.luzviminda.ph/collections/sonny-yabao">https://www.luzviminda.ph/collections/sonny-yabao</a>)</em></p><p>His humble beginnings prevented him from finishing college, but he eventually settled in Manila where he eked out a living making the rounds of newspapers and magazines as a contributor after learning photography.</p><p>Photography would also be his ticket to seeing the world, working as a government photographer in the 1970s under the Bureau of National and Foreign Information and taking on the task of documenting then First Lady Imelda Marcos as she traipsed around the world, shaking hands with world leaders.</p><p>He was awarded Photojournalist of the Year in 1985, but it was in the post-EDSA Revolution that he cemented his mark by becoming the photo editor of the newspaper Newsday from 1989 to 1991.</p><p>As the photo editor, he made sure only images of a certain standard would be used in every section of the newspaper, even working with the layout artist to make sure images got the right treatment. In fact, a photograph would sometimes occupy the whole upper half of the front page or whole pages devoted to photo essays, a deviation from the current standards at that time when most newspapers treated photographs as fillers for voids left after laying out the text.</p><div class="media-content"><div class="slider-for"><div><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/life/02/13/sonny-yabao-the-first-real-photo-editor-in-ph-2.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dii"/></div><div><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/life/02/13/sonny-yabao-the-first-real-photo-editor-in-ph-3.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dii"/></div><div><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/life/02/13/sonny-yabao-the-first-real-photo-editor-in-ph-4.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dii"/></div><div><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/life/02/13/sonny-yabao-the-first-real-photo-editor-in-ph-5.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dii"/></div></div><div class="media-content slider-desc"><div class="item-desc"><p>The newspaper Newsday shows Sonny Yabao&#x27;s influence in the treatment of photographs.</p></div><div class="item-desc"><p>The newspaper Newsday shows Sonny Yabao&#x27;s influence in the treatment of photographs.</p></div><div class="item-desc"><p>The newspaper Newsday shows Sonny Yabao&#x27;s influence in the treatment of photographs.</p></div><div class="item-desc"><p>The newspaper Newsday shows Sonny Yabao&#x27;s influence in the treatment of photographs.</p></div></div></div><p>It was this same standard for photographs that translated in our work as photographers. My stint with Newsday, albeit short-lived after I moved on to another newspaper and eventually the Associated Press, had me working with what I still consider the best photographic team in any newspaper, composed of George Gascon, Ben Razon, Derek Soriano, Joven Amojelar and Ernie Tagala.</p><p>After Newsday, Yabao would work on several major projects and books as photo editor and photographer, but he would never have the same financial stability.</p><p>The reverse was true of his creativity, however, showing he still had his best years ahead of him as evidenced by several collaborations with established names and institutions in the industry, including ABS-CBN Publishing and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.</p><p>His self-titled work, &quot;the Somnambulist,&quot; showed the depth of his visual creativity that made him revered in the industry.</p><p>This was also the time he mentored a lot of the current crop of documentary photographers and photojournalists, while living in the foothills of Mount Makiling in Los Baños, Laguna.</p><p>His influence can be measured by the breadth of the generation who came to his aide when he suffered a stroke on December 23, 2020.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/life/02/13/sonny-yabao-the-first-real-photo-editor-in-ph-6.jpg" class="fr-fil fr-dib"/><figcaption>The author with Sonny Yabao at the photographer&#x27;s haunt, the Oarhouse. <em>Photo by Little Wing Luna</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>Peers from his office in the 1970s up to students of photography today all extended their wishes for his complete recovery and contributed to settling the hospital bills.</p><p>That his influence extended generations was evident even in our own family, Yabao having worked with my brother Nico for the seminal Seven Days in the Philippines in 1995, and now even up to my son Basilio, who had his first solo exhibit at the Oarhouse in 2019 co-curated by Yabao.</p><p>Yabao passed away last February 11, 2021. A memorial honoring his work is being planned by his friends and family.</p>

<p>Yabao’s eye was respected not just by the photojournalism community, but also the general newsroom.</p>

Yabao’s eye was respected not just by the photojournalism community, but also the general newsroom.