Having grown up between Manila, Baguio and San Francisco, California, Fernandez holds as much interest in the photographic image as in the histories it fails to show. Photography is regarded as a way to make visible what systemic power often renders invisible — the labor, the lives, and the landscapes shaped by forces beyond the frame.
Working across photography, film, publishing and collaborative projects, her practice moves between visual anthropology and material intervention, examining how historical narratives are written into both landscape and body. She traces the migration of forms: how objects and subcultures move across borders, frequently carrying the weight of economic dominance or cultural erasure.
In 2026, she undertook a residency at Amici Studio in Hastings, presenting Ginugunita Kita ("I am reminiscing you"), a participatory installation exploring memory and collective mark-making, made through light-sensitive photographic processes and public contribution — inviting residents, school groups and visitors to build an evolving photographic work together.
Her documentation of gold mining in the Cordilleras drew on time spent in the UP Baguio and Cordillera People's Alliance libraries, tracing how colonial-era industry continues to shape the landscape and its communities today. It was nominated for a Prix Pictet in 2015.
Her interest in the print as an object also shapes Mapa Books, a publishing project she founded focused on Philippine documentary photography.
Her work has been presented internationally, including exhibitions in the Philippines, Singapore and the United Kingdom, with recent presentations at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Art Fair Philippines, De La Warr Pavilion and Flatland Projects. She has delivered talks at The Photographers' Gallery, SOAS University of London and Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac.
RJ Fernandez was born in Manila, Philippines in 1979. She is currently based in East Sussex.
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Born 1979 in Manila. Lives in East Sussex.
Upcoming
2026 September Coastal Currents, Electro Studios Project Space, Hastings
2027 Drawing Room, Manila
Recent Exhibitions
2026
Ginugunita Kita, Amici Studio, Hastings
The Walls Speak in Flowers, Ruup & Form
Collect, Somerset House
2025
Taking Time, Flatland Projects, Bexhill
People in Pubs, Second Act Gallery, London
YCC Collective x Refugee Week, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill
Residency Show, Bexhill Art Weekend, Common Clay
2024
Nightingales, Benilde Open, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) Manila
& De La Salle College of St. Benilde