Finding rare old Philippine photos in the seemingly endless collection of Ian-James R. Andres is always a breathtaking adventure for the digital artists on our page. That is why Philippine Islands In Color is dedicated to this wonderful researcher, historian, archivist, colorizing artist, our beloved co-admin and ironically, a professional nurse: Mr. Ian-James R. His passion for the Philippines' h
istorical past is really incredible, and I have to thank him for that passion, because he inspires me to put colors to his collected photos, and transform them into works of Art. A great bulk of this collection comes from his "mahiwagang baul", and for that I am so deeply grateful. These colorized photos are works of Art, and not a depiction of reality. Some people will always find the colors preposterous, but then Art has no boundaries. We wish to bring back the past in color, but we cannot always be correct with some of the details, therefore the recreated photos become artworks, because there is already a profound involvement of imagination, creativity, love and passion for the beauty of our historic past. To prevent cyber snatchers from owning our artworks (Philippine pages that post our colorized photos without permission and not share our link so that our photos will only be seen on their pages alone) we shall be posting our colorized works with a watermark from now on. Only our sister page Pearl of the Orient: Discover Old Philippines is the official page that shares our photos and includes an album of exclusive colorized photos. A watermark protects the artworks from being stolen. Recently one of our unwatermarked photos has been posted on another page and they cropped it as not to reveal the name of the artist. We believe that people certainly understand that it is not being egotistic to protect one's work. This special page is created for the sole purpose of artistic expression, and that this expression has got to be shared with those who appreciate it. Negative reaction towards colorized photos will never be tolerated. We shall ban those who will post derogatory remarks against this Art form.
