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Flyer by Tep Atento-Laña
In spring of 2025, artist Nica Aquino was invited to participate in Alfredo F. Tadiar Library's Balay da Judge artist residency program. During her month-long residency, she started a photo essay project entitled Traces of You, the fourth installment of her ongoing photo series, Somnia Memorias (dream memoirs). This newest part of the series explored various streets of San Fernando, La Union, originally known as Pindangan. The work specifically traces back to the former barangays (neighborhoods) her parents lived in together, quietly observing communities they once frequented before immigrating overseas.

As part of Nica's residency, her community engagement event included an artist talk at Puón Books, followed by a lesson on photography basics, and a photo walk. The photo walk led participants to historic landmarks near the bookshop, as well as landmarks personal to the artist, stopping by former streets and homes her parents once lived in together.
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Leaving each item up to their own interpretation, participants were given a scavenger hunt list as guidance for their photography.

​Here were our recommendations:
  • Take a photo of something close up.
  • Experiment with shadows, light, or reflections.
  • Find interesting textures, patterns, or shapes in the world around you.
  • Find something mint green. It can be a building exterior, interior, or an object. This is our homage to Trokipalye and their #TKColorCooling series! 
  • Create a candid photo of a street scene.
  • Create a wider photo of a landscape or cityscape around San Fernando or La Union.
  • Photograph your favorite public space around San Fernando or La Union.
  • Find signage with llokano words or phrases.
  • Favorite restaurant or good food in San Fernando or La Union.
  • Show us something you feel represents La Union.
  • And anything else that resonates!

Culminating in an online exhibition hosted by Mata Art Gallery, PIECES OF PINDANGAN 
shares photos submitted by the participants, which were created during the workshop or independently. This work became extra meaningful for us, as a typhoon recently made its way through La Union and the Northern Philippines in the summer of 2025, damaging many of the streets we walked through and the sites photographed in this project. It's moments like these that we, as photographers, know we've done our jobs — documenting and memorializing our continually changing communities.

Please check out the participant submissions below. We recommend viewing from a computer for the full salon-style gallery experience! Click on any image to enlarge.​
NICA AQUINO (b. 1990, Los Angeles) is a visual artist, curator and cultural producer. She received her BFA in Photography from the Pacific Northwest College of Art (Portland, OR) and MA in Contemporary Visual Culture from the Manchester School of Art (United Kingdom). Born and raised in California, Nica now lives and works between Northeast Los Angeles and La Union PH, where her family has lived and thrived for generations.

Using an everyday point and shoot camera, Nica employs 35mm analogue photography to document life as she sees it. Her image-based work is a visual diary of time, place, and memory, and is often grounded in her experience as a diasporic llokana.

Studio assistant TEP ATENTO-LAÑA (b. 1992, Mandaluyong City) is a Digital Character Animator based in La Union, Philippines. She graduated from De La Salle University — College of Saint Benilde, School of Design and Arts.

​The ALFREDO F. TADIAR LIBRARY was established in December 2017 in San Fernando, La Union as an independent reading and research library, free and open to the public, with PUÓN serving as its supporting space of public outreach and engagement. The Library’s mission includes the conservation, dissemination, and advancement of knowledge in the social, cultural, and natural history, literature, and broad arts of communities of the Northern Philippines region and its global diaspora, with the aim of fostering self-determination, meaningful civic engagement, creative imagination, social and economic justice, and the improvement and enjoyment of collective life.
This project was possible thanks to support from the Alfredo F. Tadiar Library, the Artist Resistance Through Solidarity (ARTS) Foundation, and many community members.