Davao Street Photographers locally known as maniniyots have continued to exist today despite the presence of developing photo studios with advanced capacities to cater various digital imaging needs. Compared to these competitive photo studios, photographs made by maniniyots are often seen as tacky by most people. Oftentimes, people look at photographs without critical and meaningful judgment. Thus, there is a need to establish understanding and appreciation of the photographs made by Davao City?s maniniyots. This study used the Terry Barrett?s methods of Art Criticism particularly Description, Interpretation, Evaluation and Theory on the works of Davao street photographers. Five maniniyots were chosen as subjects for this study. The researcher conducted interviews, observations and collected photographs from these maniniyots. This study focused on writing out criticisms and identifying formal trends of the photographs. The results of these processes helped the researcher develop a unifying theme that contributes in understanding the maniniyots and their crafts. For the results, the researcher found out that the maniniyots? photographs are based on economic and social concerns of both the costumers and the maniniyots themselves, thus making their photographs functional. With this, the researcher claims that art is merged with society and economics.

Thesis (B.A. Communication Arts) -- University of the Philippines Mindanao