Marked: The Gangs of Baseco

Vicente Jaime “Veejay” Villafranca was born and raised in the urban city of Manila. Being the third generation in the family bitten by the shutterbug, he was originally fascinated with life’s diversity and wanted to capture every amazing moment he encounters. He attended college in The University of Santo Tomas with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts and Design majored in Advertising Arts. He was so enthused with imagery that he used photography for his collegiate thesis on the evolution of the streetfoods in Manila in the form of a coffee-table book.

While in college, Veejay started out as a staff photographer for the Philippine Graphic group of publications. He was initially assigned to the presidential beat covering the President’s affairs then moved on to cover every major news event in the country. He was also dabbles in commercial and editorial photography as he handled the Mirror and Cook magazine’s editorial requirements. After four years being a staffer, he then moved on to the world of freelancing.

Veejay is published in some of the prestigious magazines in the region like Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health, FHM Philippines,
Preview magazine, Condo Central, METRO, Girlfriend,
Entrepreneur, Smart Parenting USA, etc… He is very much attuned to the visual language that he maintains a steady relationship with the editorial industry in the country and abroad.

He is has also working around Southeast Asia doing travel photo stories and documentary work for magazines and wire agencies.

In 2004 he started out stringing for international wire agencies such as the Associated Press and Agence France Presse. He signed as a regular stringer for Reuters news agency in 2006. He also is also a stringer for World Picture News in New York and a founding member of M4 Collective in Manila. He just finished his Masteral degree in Photojournalism in the Konrad Adenaeur foundation Asian Center for Journalism. He has also been recently nominated in the Joop Swart Masterclass program of the World Press photo foundation and the National Geographic all roads documentary grant.

He is also the 2008 recipient of the Ian Parry Scholarship grant.

Veejay is currently based in Manila.