Since he was a young child, Edwin Santiago has had an eye for art. While others kids his age were playing with regular toys, he was creating small mud sculptures of icons and saints. By age 10, he won his first art contest, beating out 500 other students. To date, Edwin has received nearly a dozen prestigious advertising and marketing awards from national and international advertising and design organizations.

Ever since he could remember, he has enjoyed taking on hobbies and learning new things - from flower arranging to cooking, gardening to creative writing, painting to scrap booking, interior design to fashion styling (he even hand crafts over 200 Christmas cards a year for his family and friends). He’s been hired by HGTV for parties and his works have been published by several magazines in North and South America, Europe and Asia. He doesn’t stop until he has created perfection.

Being creative isn’t just a hobby to him, it’s his life.  His latest passion, perhaps one passion he's stuck with the longest- has been photography.

Perhaps it's because photography allows him to be creative and at the same time tell his story and the story of others he has encountered on his many journeys. He has traveled all over Asia, Europe, North America, Australia and South America to photograph his many adventures.

Edwin's mission is to visit at least 14 of the 20 Wonders of the World. So far, he's visited 7. His latest trips to Cambodia's Angkor Wat and Mexico's Chichen Itza are featured in the portfolio section of this website). By the end of 2008, he would have completed 10 on the list.

Edwin travels an average of 30 times a year. Whether it’s by car, plane, boat, rickshaw, gondola or elephants ... one thing's for sure - his camera is attached to his body and his laptop is never too far away.

Edwin's photographs are published regularly in several magazines such as MetroSource, Mod Magazine, TV Star, Where LA Magazine, Where OC Magazine and Where GuestBook. Some of his works have also appeared in national magazines and newspapers across Canada, United States, Amsterdam, Brazil, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and the Philippines.

After three successful one man shows, he is currently working on his fourth gallery show to open this year.

He shares his talent with others in different ways. He takes time to personally get involved with some charity work here in the US. He helps many non-profits with their fundraising activities that have benefited organizations like Shelter for the Homeless, Myasthenia Gravis Foundation, St. Joseph’s Church, HRC, LifeWorks Mentoring, and the Trevor Project.

Edwin's proudest moment- he helped raise over 20,000 toys for Toys for Tots in the last few years which have made a difference to over 10,000 indigent children in Southern California and Manila.

Back home, he founded Alpha Sierra Foundation in honor of his father to help fund scholarships, assist the poor with medical assistance and grants to orphanages and senior homes. His dream project is to build a school library in a public school in the Philippines.

Edwin’s main goal in life is to be happy. As long as he’s surrounded by his loving family, good friends and his art, he’s happy.