In line with the celebration of Festival of Excellence, the Ateneo Photographer’s Society (APS) launched its third annual Esporre: Photojournalism Contest yesterday afternoon at Roxas Avenue, this year highlighting the field of street photography.

“The gist of Esporre photojournalism contest is basically seeing what others usually see but don’t mind. It is basically Street photography photojournalism, which [requires only] minimal edits to stick true to what you see,” Kent Coquilla, president of APS explained in an interview.

With the theme “Finding God in everything that sparks Joy,” the goal of Esporre, as Coquilla discussed, is to showcase the city of Davao under three categories: the people of Davao, the culture of Davao and the environment of Davao.

“In finding God, we need to see the theme in in all those categories,” he said.

Seven teams composed of three members each, coming from different clusters joined the competition. Only the School of Nursing was not able to participate in the annual event.

The participants were given only one hour and thirty minutes for the shoot. The perimeter of the competition was from Roxas Avenue to Acacia.

“This shoot is just an hour and thirty minutes so you can really feel the contest in it. It is not like chill shoot. They need to think and we want them to think and to choose the photo that best represents what they feel,” Coquilla 
discussed.

By Monday evening or Tuesday morning next week, Coquilla said that the APS will have an exhibit of the photos captured by the participants during Esporre at the Arrupe Hall but the winners will be announced on February 22 which is the culmination of the Festival of Excellence and Sadsad Mindanaw competition.

In an interview, Wynbelle Salinas of team Accountancy shared that her team had a hard time showcasing the theme under the culture of Davao.

“Wala kaayo’y ganap. Sa culture gyud mi naglisud kay lisud iencapsulate ang kadiverse sa culture nato,” she said.

“Nagplan kami before na magkasama lang kami magshoot. Then after a while, para mas naay range sa shots namo, nagseparate mi ug ways for variation of subjects. Giprioritize namo ang culture kay lisud unya medyo spontaneous sa people and environment kay dali dali ra man,” Salinas added.