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— March/April 2018Remembering John Chua
FILIPINO PHOTOGRAPHER
John Chua, died on January 6
shortly before his 70th birthday,
after a long battle with cancer of the colon.
For him, life was an adventure to be entered
into whole-heartedly. His commercial career
spanned more than four decades but while
advertising work paid the bills, much of his
energy was fed into advocacy.
That started in the 1970s, with the Ifugao
people of Banaue, northern Luzon. Back then,
they lived truly remote lives but change was
clearly coming. His shots brought attention
to their culture and his dedication led to him
helping organise the first Imbayahs or ethnic
games, and launching a volunteer programme to
rebuild the rice terraces.
Flying was another life-long passion and
Chua would often hang around military airfields
trying to hitch a ride, with both the Air Force
and Navy frequently charmed into submission.OBITUARYIt wasn’t all joy rides though. His work with the
Ifugao had honed his photojournalism, skills he
put to good use riding shotgun into disaster zones
such as the 1990 Luzon earthquake and Typhoon
Haiyun in 2013.
In 1998, after learning to fly an ultralight
himself, he flew from General Santos to Laoag,
traversing almost the entire length of the country
to prove to the Air Transportation Office that
ultralights were safe enough for recreational use.
He called the project Haribon, the Tagalog word
for the critically endangered Philippine eagle, the
world’s largest eagle.
Another animal that became part of his
life was Ma’ali, the Manila Zoo’s sole elephant.
Introduced by his daughter, Kathy, he became
Ma’ali’s surrogate keeper, learning all there was to
know about their welfare. Once firm friends, she
in turn became one of his change agents, recruited
to thrill children and adults with special needs.
The first of those was Ian, a 25-year-oldautistic man he met while scoping out a shoot.
Chua taught him the rudiments of photography
and then cajoled a national newspaper editor into
looking at them. Impressed, the paper published
a revealing ‘self-portrait’ – a shot of a boardwalk
with just the photographer’s toes in view.
That led to a steady stream of invitations
from other disadvantaged groups and Chua
started ‘Photography with a Difference’, an
informal, Facebook-run organisation that paired
photographers with people with disabilities or
crippling illness. Flying, of course, had a role to
play: kids with cancer flew with on Navy aircraft,
children with autism learned aerial photography
from ultralights.
Kathy Chua, a photographer herself, says her
father always said that it takes the same effort
to dream big and dream small, so you might as
well dream big. Only he made sure, it seems, that
his dreams were always big enough for others to
come along for the ride.