REY MONTALBO Jr.

Rey hails from the small town of Pontevedra, Capiz, in the Philippines. While Capiz was once known for supernatural folklore, it has since gained fame as the seafood capital of the country. Rey’s talent for drawing emerged in grade school, leading him to create posters for school events. This skill eventually led him to pursue Architectural Drafting in a vocational high school, where he explored various artistic media. Despite a detour into economics and banking in college and his career, Rey’s love for photography persisted, evolving from instamatic cameras to DSLR to mobile phone cameras. This transformation made him realize his true role as a historian and memory preserver rather than an artist-photographer.

STORYTELLER OF EXPERIENCES

A photograph captures a fleeting moment, a mere fraction of a second, preserving a piece of time that has slipped away forever. 

It immortalizes that fleeting second, holding it in perpetuity.

WHY “KAPRE”?

In Philippine mythology, the Kapre is a creature that may be described as a tree giant, tall, dark-colored, hairy, and muscular. The Kapre is also said to have a strong body odor and sits on a tree to smoke a cigar.

The kapre is distinctively Pinoy (colloquial for “Filipino people”) and gives Rey that link to his roots in Capiz. Besides, there is a nice ring to it!

(Art work by Ramram Nismal)

KEEPER OF EXPERIENCES

Every second in time is a moment. Whether that moment is memorable and worth keeping is entirely dependent on one’s own perception. As I exist, as everybody else, I move from one fraction to another. In that fleeting instant, we decide what is worth keeping and what is not. While everything remains in our hearts and minds forever, the camera records it for posterity’s sake while the story behind each moment resides deep in our hearts.

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