A Parallel Planets piece by Pepe Serapio
Parallel Planets presents Aleyn Comprendio
in Beyond the Flow of Time
Story by Jofer Serapio
Mentioned: childhood memories, contemporary fairy tales, and Prudence & Lucy
* * *
One of the more passionate arguments I've had with friends is on photography as an art form. The argument goes that photography is not an art in itself and therefore photographers should not be considered artists. Taking a photograph is easy, that's what they say: you buy yourself an SLR, find a good enough lighting, and shoot something that already looks pretty. Tada! You have your photograph! It goes without saying that the negative side has never seen a photograph by Aleyn Comprendio.
To be fair, Aleyn primarily works with films, cheap ones, she insists. Prudence and Lucy, her 35mm Pentax film cameras, share the responsibility of crafting worlds from Aleyn's captured memories, forgotten fairy tales that recreates the wonders of childhood.
But how easy is it to do all that with films? It's not. You have to have full control of your medium and enough time and money to develop your films. The lighting, the choice of angles, and even the tiny adjustments you choose to make while shooting will definitely affect the final product. Film photography is overwhelming but, if Aleyn's photographs teach us anything, it's worth all that work.
Aleyn hails from the same city I spent two years (well, one and a half, anyway) of university in. Although I never met Aleyn while I was living in that city, I became friends with a lot of her coworkers, including one of her favorite models and closest friends. It's a small city, they argue, to which I always counter with the idea that it's more of a sweet city filled with sweet people, all of whom find it easy to befriend strangers, even weird ones like myself. That sweetness and friendliness is evident in Aleyn herself: the first time we met, she made sure to make me feel warm and comfortable. It was my first Art in the Park, and she was my first purchase.
Whether it's because of her day job—Aleyn Comprendio is involved with a world-renowned company that specializes in destination weddings—or not, doesn't really matter: Her artistic direction is clearly polished and rehearsed while still having enough room for experimental techniques. There's a sense of marvel and magic in every photograph she takes, the grainy effect of film capturing each dream as the sought-after souvenir it truly is. Wendelin Van Draanen said it best: “Some of us get dipped in flat, some in satin, some in gloss.... But every once in a while, you find someone who's iridescent, and when you do, nothing will ever compare.”
After Aleyn takes a photograph of you, no other photograph will ever come close.
