Davao City Committee Presents Rooted in the Land

Kellis Parlett
7 minutes ago
3 min read

A two-artist photography exhibition exploring Filipino culture, identity, roots, and the artists' personal perspectives and connections to the Philippines.

Opening reception: September 5, 2026 1:30 PM

Exhibition duration: September 5^th to October 31^st

Alexander Pomper

A documentary photographer and storyteller based between Portland, Oregon, and Baguio, Philippines. His work explores traditional food cultures, fermentation, and the people safeguarding endangered foodways. He holds a Master's in Gastronomy from the University of Gastronomic Sciences (UNISG) in Pollenzo, Italy, and studied photography at The Evergreen State College. After years working in Portland's restaurant industry and later in commercial photography with brands including Nike, he shifted his practice toward long-term documentary projects centered on food, culture, and place.

His work has taken him across the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, Spain, Mexico, Guatemala, and Cuba, documenting the knowledge and traditions of farmers, fishers, artisans, chefs, and home cooks. Whether photographing Ifugao rice wine makers in the Philippine Cordillera, traditional tempeh producers in Indonesia, or pulque makers in Mexico, Alexander approaches each story with curiosity, patience, and a commitment to preserving cultural knowledge through photography.

Alexander is currently developing his first photo book on the people safeguarding disappearing food traditions while expanding his practice into documentary filmmaking. Outside of photography, he spends much of his time experimenting with fermentation, making tempeh, rice wine, sauerkraut, vinegars, and other fermented foods that deepen his understanding of the traditions he documents.

Celeste Noche

A Filipino American editorial and documentary photographer based between Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco, California specializing in food, travel, and portraiture. Her work is rooted in the narrative, exploring memory, displacement, and identity. She’s reported on mobile libraries in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland for NPR, the socio-economic impact of fruit tree plantings in her own Portland community for HuffPost, and restaurants all over the country for publications like National Geographic Traveler UK and The New York Times.

She chooses to focus on food, community, and place, and how each inform one another: community shaping food, food dependent on place, and place a reflection of community. Those connections and relationships feed her work, immersing deeper into histories unrecorded and broadening the narrative. Her community-informed practice is about holding onto what matters and recognizing all of our roles in contributing to our shared legacies.

Celeste is a member of Diversify Photo, on the Advisory Committee of Women Photograph, and the founder of Portland in Color– a nonprofit dedicated to supporting BIPOC creatives in Portland, Oregon. She holds a degree in English Literature and Classics from Stanford University, and lives with her husband, toddler, and two cats.

Curator Statement

Drawing from Alexander Pomper’s Rice and Ritual and Celeste Noche’s Bye and Bye, this exhibition presents the Philippines not as a static symbol of tradition but as a culture in motion. Pomper’s work reveals Batad as a living landscape where ancestral agricultural practices coexist with rapid technological change, challenging the notion of “untouched” communities. Noche’s photographs trace the long journey of migration and survival, reconstructing a family history shaped by displacement, resilience, and the persistence of memory.

Within APCC, these photographic narratives offer audiences a vivid sense of the Philippines as a place continually evolving rooted in heritage yet shaped by global movement and modern realities.

I hope this exhibition encourages viewers to move beyond romanticized images of the Philippines and instead recognize the vitality, complexity, and ongoing transformation that define its people and their stories.