Marc Go

A meandering road leads this design graduate from architecture to photography and back again

- Angel Yulo

"Where did Marc go?” The pun is Marc Henrich Go’s memorable Instagram handle. It also encapsulates the eventful journey he took after finishing architecture school in 2014.

While many of his peers sought design apprenticeships in preparation for the board exams, Go documented our natural heritage and culture—one week in Banawe, the next in Boracay, and so on—as a commissioned photographer of the Department of Tourism (DOT) ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ campaign. The endeavor was not new to him, being founding president of Fotomasino, the University of Santo Tomas’ photography organization. It was a remarkable opportunity. Our country said hello to the rest of the world through his photos.

In the same year, he was commissioned for his first big architecture shoot, SM Aura Premier, because it was going to be entered in an international competition. The project won multiple awards and commendations at the Philippine Property Awards, South East Asia Property Awards, and International Council of Shopping Awards.

Working on the tourism campaign also forged his relationship with Filipino architecture and design firm BUDJI+ROYAL. Budji Layug and Royal Pineda were commissioned by the DOT to design the Philippine pavilion when the Philippines hosted the Asian Tourism Forum, and their approach called for photographs of the country to be imbued in the design. After the pavilion launch, Go inquired if the firm was hiring and they took him on board as a junior designer.