What The Water Keeps
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PrizeBronze in Portraiture/Self-Portrait
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PhotographerMaria Del Pilar Trigo Bonnin, Philippines
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Date of PhotographAugust 3,2023
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StudioPilar Bonnin Photography
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Instagram
What the Water Keeps is a self-portrait made from directly above, looking straight down into the river at Siargao Island. I suspended myself in the current and let go. What the camera recorded from the canopy overhead was not something I could fully control — and that was the point.
The image sits at the tension between surrender and preservation: the softness of a body at rest held against the absolute hardness of ancient rock, roots, and moving water. I was not floating above the world. I was inside it, kept by it.
Based between the Philippines and Spain, Pilar Bonnin is a fine-art, portrait, and advertising photographer with 25 years of professional experience. She is a Sony Philippines and Southeast Asian Ambassador. Pilar previously served as Editor-in-Chief of Digital Photographer Philippines and Creative Director for Lonely Planet. Alongside global campaigns, she founded "Portraits of Love" for underprivileged children and remains busy with humanitarian work for Indigenous People from the Philippines, unifying elite artistry with empathy.
Awards 2025 Second Runner-Up (Climate Category) – Standard Chartered Weather Photographer of the Year, Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS)
2025 Shortlisted Finalist – Hamdan International Photography Award (HIPA)Sports
Photographer of the Year, Wedding and Portrait Photographers of the Philippines (WPPP). 2002