GUILTY PLEASURE

Posted by Hub Pacheco (Pasay, Philippines) on 28 May 2007 in People & Portrait.

Three years ago, I had to make a serious choice - pursue photography OR drawing for comics. It was one or the other. My future career, my bread and butter - a steady income-generating vocation.

I've loved comics ever since i was young enough to read. Archie comics were my first treasures, then came the 90s Spider-man, and a bunch of other random titles. I bought comic books every single week when back in high school. I was so engrossed in them, reading them cover to cover, word for word. Escapism, really.

By then, the photography bug hit me and I had to make that decision. I could draw, well I'm no Alex Ross, but I could draw. I've always dreamed of being a penciller for Amazing Spider-Man. Problem is, I was too lazy to finish what I did. So I gave it up and pursued photography full-time.

That did not mean that photography for me is a fallback career. Hell no. Ever since my first roll of film on my first (dinky) camera, I saw the potential to influence, if not change, people's perceptions of reality. I firmly believe that photography has the power to evoke a certain emotion unique to every person but still have that collective feel to it.

Of course, comic books do that too but I felt it more in photography. That's why I decided to take it seriously.

When i gave up that dream of a comicbook-centered career, i gave up reading comics altogether.

Nowadays though, I've been reading a lot of it again, thanks to the influence of my good friend. From Blankets to Sandman, from Jeph Loeb to Arnold Arre, I was hooked again. This time not so much as escapism but more of an added inspiration in life.

I just realized it now that I may have given up my dream of pursuing comics as a career, but as a passion, I don't think I'll ever give that up, much like my passion for evoking emotions in photographs.

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