Eduardo Masferré
1909–1995
Eduardo Masferré (1909–1995) was a Filipino-Catalan photographer. He was born in Sagada, Mountain Province, in the north of the island of Luzon, the son of a Spanish soldier who had emigrated from Catalonia and a mother from the Kankana-ey people. From 1914 to 1921 the family lived in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, where he went to school; he completed his schooling in the Philippines. As a photographer he was self-taught. From 1934 he documented the life of the indigenous peoples of the Philippine Cordillera – Bontok, Kankana-ey, Kalinga, Gaddang and Ifugao – in black-and-white photographs; after the Second World War he ran a photographic studio in Bontoc. From 1982 his work was shown in Manila, Copenhagen and Tokyo, in 1989 at the Rencontres internationales de la photographie in Arles, and in 1992 at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington. The volume "People of the Philippine Cordillera. Photographs 1934–1956" was published in 1988. Masferré died in Sagada in 1995.
Works
Biography
Education 1914–1921 Schooling in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Catalonia From 1921 Completed his schooling in the Philippines; self-taught as a photographer Solo exhibitions (selection) 1982 Exhibition, Manila 1983 Exhibition, Manila 1984 Exhibition, Copenhagen 1986 Exhibition, Tokyo 1992 Peoples of the Luzon Mountains: Philippine Photographs by Eduardo Masferre, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 2025 Light & Legacy: The Filipino-Catalan Lens of Eduardo Masferré, Philippine Consulate General, Barcelona Group exhibitions (selection) 1989 Rencontres internationales de la photographie, Arles Collections Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives (National Museum of Natural History), Washington, D.C. Publications 1988 E. Masferré: People of the Philippine Cordillera. Photographs 1934–1956, Devcon I.P. Inc., Makati (Metro Manila) 1999 A Tribute to the Philippine Cordillera (with Jill Gale de Villa), Brier Projects