southern symphony

Neal Oshima and Mark Nicdao on shared paths, dynamic collaboration, and taking honest photos of Mindanao. 

- CHELSEA SARABIA

NEAL OSHIMA AND MARK NICDAO CAN’T STOP LAUGHING. Sat in the warmly lit space of the Benjarong Bar in Davao, there was more to their celebratory drinks than wrapping up their latest shoot. “Vogue was crazy enough to put us together,” Oshima said, much to the amusement of Nicdao.

The two photographers are behind some of the essential Philippine fashion imagery of the last decades. They had worked together before, but this beauty story for Vogue Philippines marks their first collaboration in editorial.

“I think this is my 22nd year as a photographer,” Nicdao said. “And for me to actually help out in a shoot with Neal, it turned out we were just gonna be like-” “Yelling,” Oshima quips. Nicdao laughs, “Yeah, jamming [through] the photographs. But [also] doing something really exciting, you know? It’s funny.”

The suggestion to collaborate would actually come from Oshima himself, who was admittedly hesitant to take on the project at first, considering the done-up quality of editorials. In his present work, his subjects are never posed, never done up prior to the shot. The word he would use to describe what he strives toward in his work is “verisimilitude” rather than “authenticity.” That is to say, he is “really more interested in making people look like what they are rather than what someone idealizes them to be,” he told Vogue Philippines in an interview. He would later learn that the idea would align with the Vogue team’s goal, but not before recommending Nicdao for the job.