Cosplay Photography Exhibit Features Filipinas

Fine Filipinas don fantastic costumes for a photo exhibit by veteran photographer Jay Tablante. Cosplay goddess Alodia Gosiengfiao and her sister Ashley join actresses Rhian Ramos, Nadine Howell, Bianca King, Solenn Heussaff, and Barbie Forteza in Le Femme Fatales, a cosplay photography exhibit where they portray popular characters from anime, comic books, movies, and video games.

Fine Filipina Femme Fatales

It takes women with rich imaginations to credibly portray fantastic characters, and every single one of the Filipinas featured in this exhibit has imagination in spades.

Having courageously brought cosplay geekery from the fringe to the spotlight over the last seven years, even against the conservative cultural norms of Philippine society, Filipina-Chinese model Alodia Gosiengfiao has risen to become one of the world’s greatest cosplayers. Because of Alodia, Philippine cosplay has been elevated to the point that it’s now featured in this prestigious exhibit. “Of course, working with the one who made a name with cosplay was nothing short of a pleasure,” Tablante tells Spot.ph in an interview. “She cosplayed several characters for the exhibit.” Alodia is joined in this exhibit by her sister and fellow cosplayer Ashley Gosiengfiao.

Filipina actress Rhian Ramos played the female lead in the Philippine version of Zorro. She also played a sorceress in a fantasy TV series. Having portrayed two different characters in two different versions of a classic Philippine superhero tale, Rhian lends herself particularly well to the role of a high-flying superheroine in Tablante’s exhibit. “She has been my ‘muse’ for the past few years,” shares Tablante. “It was with the shoots we do for fun, that built that rapport. Having her cosplay as Rogue was just a natural for her.” Rhian is joined in this exhibit by her sister Nadine Howell.

Filipina-German actress Bianca King is best known for her portrayal of a winged warrior-woman in one of the Philippines’ biggest movie-TV fantasy franchises. In fact, her acting career features a whole slew of fantasy series involving everything from superheroes to mermaids to hawkmen. She’s got a lot of experience with fantastic characters.

Filipina-French actress Solenn Heussaff is a make-up artist and fashion designer who’s one of the leading ladies in a superhero TV series. Alodia once told me that cosplayers have to do everything themselves when they’re starting out. Apparently, Solenn has some of that plucky self-reliance. “She was complete professional, and does her homework,” says Tablante. “The leather pants we got to use were hers, and she did her own prosthetic make-up, which was super cool. We chose X-23 for her because she’s your deadly combination of a sporty bod and killer looks.”

Hailed as one of the Philippines’ best new actresses, Barbie Forteza lends her promising thespic talents to the cosplay scene with her dynamic posing and projection.

Unleash Your Inner Geek

As one of the Philippines’ top photographers, Tablante has worked with some of the country’s most beautiful Filipinas over the last eight years. He’s also a self-confessed comic book geek. “I’m a frustrated illustrator,” says the popular photographer in an interview with Marvel.com. “Ever since I was a kid when I started my little collection, I’ve always wanted to draw like the artists in comic books.”

“I got into cosplay photography as a means to merge photography with my childhood love and geekiness for comics, anime, and video games,” Tablante tells Alexandre.ph. “Also to solve my frustration at drawing – if I can’t draw my favorite game babes, I can still shoot them!”

With this cosplay photo exhibit, Tablante achieves his comic-book dreams by drawing with light instead of ink. With a certified geek behind the lens and imaginative Filipinas in front of the lens, these meticulously composed cosplay images are guaranteed to take viewers on visual flights of pop culture fantasy. Le Femme Fatales opens at The Crucible Gallery at 6:30pm Manila time (UTC+8) on February 22, 2011.

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February 21, 2011 by Mike Abundo

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