Nagdamgo Ako Ani

Jacob Wachal

Nagdamgo Ako Ani is a visual record of my continual search for a sense of belonging as a third culture kid in the American South. I am interested in reconciling the feeling of existing as a tourist in my homeland through an exploration of my innate desire for visual storytelling as a mode of preserving the cultural traditions and values of my family, while simultaneously operating within a societal context that has been marred by the ideals of Western colonialism and imperialism. 

For over a century, the “truth claim” of photography has been exploited as a colonial tool, presenting a narrow view of reality and weaponizing otherness in order to promote imperialistic ideals. These pointed images are immortalized in textbooks, anthropological publications, and in our national archives. However, when looking through my own family’s archive, I am presented with a version of the truth which is not clinical, precise, or motivated by ulterior agendas, but defined by a simple earnestness and care motivated by love and the desire to memorialize. 

Inspired by these snapshots which highlight my family’s strength in the face of adversity, I seek to portray a vision, both authentic and romanticized, of the lived experiences of the Southern third culture kid which is reflective of my bittersweet upbringing, defined by the act of creating a home and pouring love into a place that can be at times both saccharine and hostile to my existence. 

About the Artist:  Jacob Wachal is a lens-based fine artist from Lexington, Kentucky. His identity as a second generation Filipino-American heavily influences the concerns of his practice, especially in relation to the decolonization of the photographic image. His contemplative images and installed works explore overarching themes such as time, memory, and sense of place as they relate to his familial and diasporic experiences. These works seek to act as a reclamation of agency through the appropriation and subversion of historic forms and processes typically associated with imagery disseminated during the Western colonial period. 

Jacob graduated with an MFA in Photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2023, and his work has been included in exhibitions across the United States, in spaces such as the Center for Photographic Art (Carmel, CA), Zeitgeist Gallery (Nashville, TN), Colorado Photographic Arts Center (Denver, CO), Fenix Arts (Fayetteville, AR), and Sulfur Studios (Savannah, GA). In 2023, he received the Innovations in Imagemaking Award from the Society of Photographic Education, and was named a finalist in Lensculture’s Fine Art Photography Awards, as well as in Photolucida’s Critical Mass. Jacob is currently an instructor at the University of Kentucky.​