Hi Joseph Yzrael! What's your photography style?

Hi. I am Joseph Yzrael Agra. I don't think I have a particular style. I just like taking photos of people and objects from a distance. It puts things into perspective and serves as a personal reminder as to how small we are compared to the grand scale of world we live in.


What's it like to be a photographer in Davao City?

The city is a constant source of inspiration. While others like to travel around the country or the world, I'm content with exploring my own little corner of the globe. That's what makes it exciting: the constant search, discovering hidden places, encountering new people, and finding new ways of capturing the world around me. Davao provides a lot of opportunities for photographers and artists to grow and that's why I'll never trade it for anything.


What's your take on Instagram?

Instagram is what made me take photography a little bit more seriously. It is a social media application that provides a platform for people to showcase to others their lives, their art and their ideas and also allows them to interact with individuals who share the same interests. But therein lies the rub, these accounts have a tendency to become online lives carefully curated to impress and we need to be careful about that.


Are you fond of making photography series or you just take photos randomly?

I wouldn't exactly call it a photo series but recently I've been trying to come up with a least three photos with the same theme every time I post something. I still take random photos every now and then whenever I feel the need to document the events that are unfolding around me.


What is your favorite photo?

The ones that I keep to myself.


What is a photographer for you?

I am always weary about using the term 'photographer' because for me a photographer is many things. It's someone who is in a constant love affair with light. It's someone who can invoke emotions in others through their photographs. It's someone who seeks to reinvent how perceive the world around us through visual imagery.

Given that definition, I'm not even sure if I'm one.

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