Photographer of the Week

Bigmike Muin - Shooter from the South
by Yugel Losorata

It may be a different scene in the Southern part of the Philippines as far as photography is the point of discussion. For one, Zamboanga City has no photo clubs.  Yet the caliber of photographers this place produces is essentially as good as anyone from all over, where photographers’ groups come in big numbers. Bigmike Muin is a proof of that, with his photos serving as strong visual merits.  

Bigmike is a certified son of the South, being born in Davao City and raised in Zamboanga City. He now belongs to a Zamboanga-based professional events photography and has frequently participated in group exhibits around the area.

“My love affair with photography started in the early ‘90s when I was still a MassComm student at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University,” shared Bigmike who was born Maechel Kareem Braganza Muin and spent all his school life in that Mindanao chapter of Ateneo.

He was instantly attracted to photography which he counts “as a time-capsule on a glossy piece of photo paper.” While for quite some time he had been into film, he decided to buy his first point-and-shoot digital camera in 2006 when his wife Chyril Ann Cadiz delivered their first daughter. He saw the need to widen his knowledge about digital as Internet and updated photography books helped a lot in that department.

At present, he is into events and portraiture, as well as fashion and conceptual lifestyle. His interest in capturing people and human emotions does well for his development as a lensman. On the side, he deals with landscape and architectural shots with precision. But his touch for different personas is as natural as God’s heavenly creations that shooting people has become instinctive.

Bigmike disclosed, “Good pictures usually are subject-based and not in any way a photographer’s choice. It is only when one opens his heart and mind that he sees beauty in everyone and in everything. We are but vessels to encapsulate that which we have been privileged to experience.”

His good eye for creativity comes as a surprise, being the son of a couple attached to a profession seemingly not connected with visual art at all. Looking closely into his portfolio of eye-candy images, his parents Judge Abdulmaid Kiram Muin and Atty. Susana Braganza Muin must have found his talent believable beyond reasonable doubt.

On the other hand, Bigmike’s two brothers Dr. Michael Hussin Braganza Muin (of medical informatics) and Dr. Mikael Ali Braganza Muin (of dentistry) found no questions about his shots but consider them as a kind of effective antidote for the eye sore.

“I believe that being a photographer is more of a privilege than a right,” he analyzed. “In events photography, I am invited to experience and be part of special moments in people’s lives. It is such great pleasure and responsibility to be entrusted by people, mostly strangers, to document the facts and feelings of their lives.”

Bigmike has enjoyed joining photo contests where he gets to somehow measure his skill level. Two years back, he won second place in a photo contest held at the famed La Hermosa Festival. It wasn’t a top prize but the triumphant feeling was just the same as winning it all.

The owner and administrator of one called Smart Kids Learning Center, the loving father has three angels for inspiration, namely, Miguel Carlos, Mikaela Sandrina, and Adina Mariella. Like any true artist, he relies on good mood to produce properly done output.

This page has concluded he is in relaxed mood most of the time.