Filipino-Americans are the third largest Asian group in the US, with a population of over 4.5 million. The Philippine diaspora in the United States is a community shaped by a long history of labor migration and transnational family networks. Many have moved there to escape the struggle of poverty, corruption and national disasters, often sending their income to families back home. Remittances in the billions of dollars contribute significantly to the both the US and Philippine economies.

Most immigrants are unable to return to their homeland. They work in several major industries including healthcare, hospitality, and service-- industries where workers become almost faceless, saving lives or striving to give others better lives, while themselves live simply, preferring to send their savings back home.

This is an exhibit of portraits of Filipinos, by Filipinos and long-term immigrants. We think it is important to mount a portrait photography exhibition to give a face to the name “Philippines,” a country that quietly helps drive US economy and industry. Despite the Philippines’ long economic and cultural ties with the US, many American citizens are unaware of basic information about the Philippines, ranging from where it is located to the fact that during the Pacific War, Manila was the second most bombed city after Warsaw.

The Philippines was a colony of the United States from 1898 to 1946. In the 1898 Treaty of Paris, Spain ceded the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico to the US for $20 million, without consulting Filipino leaders. The Americans established a public school system in the Philippines and English became the language of instruction. While this enabled Filipinos to communicate internationally, an advantage in finding jobs overseas, cultural Americanization also undermined local traditions and languages. American goods, music and film proliferated in the Philippines, such that almost all Filipinos know American culture. The same can’t be said vice versa.

Second and third generation Philippine immigrants in the United States often navigate cultural identity, racism and political underrepresentation. While this exhibit is for all audiences, it is most especially for the Philippine diaspora who misses home, particularly the faces of home. In April 2023, Vogue Philippines featured on its cover indigenous tattoo artist Apo Whang-od, who is over a hundred years old, making her the oldest person ever to appear on a Vogue cover. This portrait gained notable attention in the US, as well as globally. It principally resonated with US audiences because the April 2023 magazine issue theme was “Beauty.” The cover portrait sparked conversations on representation, the meaning of beauty in the context of aging, and social media virality of a person who doesn’t even have her own social media account.

The time is ripe and exciting to continue this conversation.