padyakpitik

Indomitable Faith: Nazareno 2011

2011-01-13T05:40:00.000-08:00

ON the Feast Day of the Black Nazarene of 2011, I was privileged to have been invited by Wide Open Workshops (WOW) to join their photowalk. Wide Open or WOW is a regular street photography masterclass facilitated by street photography champion and veteran photojournalist Luis Liwanag. It is held regularly every few weeks and the meandering sidestreets of Quiapo and Baclaran serve as Luis' and his wards' stomping grounds.

It was my first time to shoot Pista ng Nazareno, as well as the dozen or so WOW photowalkers' that day. I've been hesitant to cover this event the past years what with the notoriety of Manila's pickpockets as well as having a personal aversion to crowds. So shooting the Nazarene Feast was an "out of the comfort zone" thing for me, in a way. As I found out that day, it was a completely different "zone" altogether. Nothing can possibly prepare you for the total sensory assault of a 6 million or so crush of people crowded in the narrow streets surrounding Quiapo. It was, in turns, like being inside a giant moshpit, a washing machine, a blender or a river's current. It just completely engulfs you and carries you away.

Beyond the adrenaline rush, covering the Nazareno procession was also an eye-opener of sorts for me. Not being a "religious type", it was easy to scoff at the event as just a spectacle of what others consider religious fanaticism. But I realize now that fanaticism is an unfair description of why people, mostly from the poor, come in droves, barefoot to attend this event. Gazing at the tired but determined faces of the devotees, I can't help believing that the more accurate description would be indomitable faith, an unswerving belief that by showing devotion to a Higher Being, they might yet be redeemed from the hardships of life they were born into.

Payong (Umbrella)

2010-12-15T22:48:00.001-08:00

Taken on a rainy early evening. Just for the heck of it and because it was overcast and about to rain when I started shooting, I boosted the camera's saturation setting. Saved me some time in post processing. Suggested soundtrack (click right and open in a new window).

Move More!

2010-12-15T22:20:00.000-08:00

Senior citizens practicing a song number at the Quezon Memorial, a haven for the Pinoy masa seeking temporary reprieve from crowded living conditions. Public spaces such as these are becoming crowded by the intrusion of commercial interests and concessions.

Glimpses of Islam: Feast of Sacrifice

2010-11-18T10:04:00.000-08:00

I had always wanted to learn more about the Muslim community in Quiapo, to see beyond the usual pirated DVD stalls in the area to which they, to the unitiated like me, are stereotyped with. An opportunity came during the CENE Photowalk for a Cause when Alex Baluyot and Luis Liwanag led a small group of us on a street shooting trip in Quiapo. I often wondered how some photographers are able to gain access inside the Quiapo Mosque, as I've always assumed it would be off-limits to non-Muslims. I was also somewhat apprehensive of venturing near Quiapo's Muslim area as it has gained a reputation (one which I am seriously starting to doubt) of being "unsafe". But with Alex Baluyot at the lead, I found that Muslims are also warm and welcoming (if a bit suspicious at first) of outsiders. I also discovered that one can freely enter the compound and the Mosque itself to take pictures with the consent of the compound's administrators. Maybe it also helped that there were some mediamen also shooting that day.
These pictures were taken on Eid al-Adha (Arabic: عيد الأضحى‎ ‘Īdu l-’Aḍḥā) or the "Festival of Sacrifice" or "Greater Eid", an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael (Isma'il) as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a ram to sacrifice instead. (source wikipedia)

Playing with Shadows

2010-11-13T02:51:00.000-08:00

Last few shots from my Sigma 10-20, which has found a new owner. A great lens that needs careful framing to put its perspective distortion to creative use. Shot a few under the Cubao MRT station, in front of the "classic" meeting place, the Jollibee at the strangely named Farmers' (mall). Starting to get the "street photography" bug. Here's one of my first tries at that elusive "layering" technique.

Rainy Day Mood

2010-10-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

Been holed up the past week since Megi arrived. Today, cabin feverish, I finally decided to venture outside and see if I could shoot the streets in this weather. These months leading to the year's end definitely aren't too bike-friendly, but as I've found out today, it presents some unexpected photographic opportunities. Shooting street with a HUGE EOS camera and lens draws some unneeded attention at times, but isn't something you can't get around with some improvisation, like shooting from the hip (see picture above). All this hype about shooting street with rangefinders and small cameras just got to me, as I don't have those "street" cameras. Today, I am again encouraged by the mantra "its the Indian, not the pana!". Use what you have!

Now I just have to get a cheap hair blow-dryer to beat the damp on equipment.

These are all in-camera jpegs, i just tweaked saturation and contrast settings on the camera. Maxxed them, actually. Then some burning around the edges in Lightroom and that's it.

Proverbial Calm

2010-10-20T11:16:00.000-07:00

A sunny day ominously darkens with rainclouds in a matter of minutes, a few hours before super-typhoon "Juan" (international name: "Megi") makes landfall north of the Philippines. Juan carried more water than last year's catastrophic typhoon Ondoy, with terrifying 260+km/hour winds. It was appropriately categorized by weather agencies as a "super-typhoon", and turned out to be the biggest storm of the decade. The death toll in Juan's wake was, fortunately, smaller than expected but nonetheless wrought destruction on thousands of acres of homes and cropland. Perhaps we did learn something about disaster preparedness from Ondoy. Or maybe we were just lucky this time?

Sanctuary

2010-10-11T20:26:00.000-07:00

A fisherman, a member of a village association, takes his turn watching over a 2-hectare locally-managed marine sanctuary. Overfishing by commercial vessels and destructive compressor-based fishing wrought havoc on the fragile ecosystem for decades. The village association has deputized enforcers, on guard to discourage fishing activity inside the sanctuary. Marine sanctuaries are typically "no-take" zones, to allow biomass to regenerate.

BAKANTE

2010-09-27T23:38:00.002-07:00

UNA: first cut of the future of documentary photography in the Philippines

2010-09-05T13:20:00.000-07:00

UNA-9 new photo-stories, pretty much a glimpse of the future of documentary photography in the Philippines. Alex Baluyut: "documentary photography will sustain you (your soul) as a photographer", "photograph, persevere, party!!!".

Alex Baluyut dishing out gems to lucky listeners. Wala pang beer yan.

Walk-in viewers contemplate UNA's harvest.

UNA is an exhibit of Alex's Master Class in Documentary Photography students' work.

The workshop ran for 9 and 1/2 Saturdays and was held at the new gallery-cafe Manila Collective in Cubao-X. An article on the exhibit ran here.

Fishers at the Margins

2010-06-09T15:01:00.000-07:00

Fishers at the Margins is a collection of photographs of fisherfolk and life in coastal communities I've put together at the request of the Tambuyog Development Center, an NGO working on community-based coastal resource management, for their 25th Founding Anniversary last May 31. Incidentally, the occasion also marked Philippine Fisherfolk Day and as such, the photo-essay made for a very fitting and perhaps long overdue tribute.

The photoessay's title is a wordplay on the term "marginal" (municipal or subsistence fishers) and "marginalized", which in NGO lingo refers to a certain demographic falling below the poverty line, and which in the Philippines is made up of about 90% of the population (beware bad data). Marginalized also denotes being unable to enjoy basic social services and being excluded from decision-making. The fisherfolk-1.5 million of them living and deriving their livelihood from the archipelago's 33,900 kilometers of coastline, remain, in most villages, marginalized--they are poor, disempowered, and excluded from the decision making processes which impact heavily on their lives.

They are people virtually on the margins of society, invisible almost, to most of us. But they are here.

I dedicate this to them.

Fishers at the Margins

Text and Photos:
Leonard G. Reyes

Music, ambient sound:
field recording by Joey Ayala of Isla Mahaba Fishers for the Songs of the Seas Project

Be sure to turn the slideshow audio "ON".

Hungerstrike for Mindoro

2009-11-21T07:28:00.000-08:00

November 18, 2009. The jubilation was short-lived for 16 Mangyan hungerstrikers and their supporters when, upon scrutinizing DENR Secretary Atienza's suspension of Intex Mining's environmental compliance certificate (ECC) issued that afternoon, they found that the suspension covers only 90 days. Enough time for Intex to submit documented proof that it conducted public consultations to be issued an ECC!

The hunger strikers are now on their 7th day of fasting.

FLASH REPORT FROM MINDORO HUNGER STRIKERS: Gardo Cruzado, a Mangyan and one of the 25 hunger strikers camped outside DENR head office, was rushed to the East Avenue Medical Center. Please repost.

Mongolia in a Heartbeat

2009-11-15T04:32:00.000-08:00

Sidestory: the Mongolian diet consists largely of sheep's milk and mutton (nope, no Mongolian BBQ. I asked). After partaking of a community feast of various milk products and roast mutton washed down with sheep's milk vodka, my stomach was wasak. Instructed by our hosts to just find suitably bushy vegetation as cover, I walked a few hundred meters away from the village to find my very own piece of MOngolia. Away from the village, and while in a reflective mood while doing the deed, the full immensity of Mongolia's raw and desolate beauty suddenly struck me. The landscape I was looking at could very well look the same as during Genghis' Khan's empire, timeless and vast and unchanged. Squatting behind a bush, and surveying the landscape, an image suddenly flashed in my head, of Zhang Ziyi suddenly arriving in the horizon, complete with trailing garments and dustcloud ala Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Needless to say, it was my best ebak experience EVER. And I've had quite a few memorable ones.

This image remained with me since then. Last night, I chanced upon a Nat Geo feature on Zhang Ziyi's own experience in Mongolia. Her impressions of Mongolia's echoed my own. The experience had come full circle!

Damned Dams

2009-11-10T19:05:00.000-08:00

Members of the Agta or Dumagat tribe and their supporters arrived yesterday in Manila after a 148-kilometer march to oppose the multi-billion-peso Laiban dam project in Tanay, Rizal. The protesters see the dam project as anti-environment, anti-development and anti-human rights.The dam reservoir of 28,000 hectares is set to displace 4,413 families from seven barangays. Legally-protected rainforest areas housing endemic and endangered species are set to be buried underwater as part of the dam reservoir area, along with areas being claimed as ancestral lands by the Dumagats and Remontados.(source: FDC)

The Agta/Dumagat tribe is the largest population of indigenous people in the Sierra Madre mountain ranges. The dam's construction poses a threat not only to their habitat, but to their culture and traditions as well, of which are inextricably woven to the forest and the mountain.

"The construction of Laiban Dam, a joint venture of the Manila Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) and San Miguel Bulk Water Co., will also destroy habitats of endemic and endangered species in the town’s forested areas." (source: PDI).

Big business over indigenous people's rights? No contest. Unless the Agta and civil society supporters generate enough public interest and sustain it for the duration of the campaign.

Hard Rain Falling

2009-10-03T01:25:00.000-07:00

An all time high in rainfall volume brought about by a changing climate, decades of mismanaged land use and zoning and destruction of critical watershed areas has wrought unprecedented flooding in Metro Manila.

This is where the surging Marikina River begins. Reigned in by the Wawa Dam, the waters are in turn birthed from water flowing down the mountains of the Sierra Madre.

At the height of Ondoy's downpour, the river swelled to a frightening 2 meters at the least,(note the brown band from the riverbed to the treeline) a surging force of nature that swept everything in its path

leaving a path of death and destruction of such magnitude never been seen before.

A hard rain is falling leaving many searching for higher ground. This is a wake up call.

Tañon's Dire Straits

2009-09-15T21:58:00.000-07:00

The fisherfolk communities around Tañon Strait find themselves in dire straits when the Japanese company Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. Ltd. (JapEx)was commissioned by the Philippine government to look for oil in the area.

Tañon Strait is a protected seascape declared by President Fidel Ramos in 1998, through Presidential Proclamation 1234. Though it is now possible to determine a resource's economic value, its real ecological value is "priceless". With its penchant for the here and now, the immediate economic return of investment, the government is overlooking the inter-generational value of a natural resource such as the Tañon seascape, which is a migration corridor for whales, dolphins and other marine mammals and is home to 11 of the country's 25 sea mammals. It is also home to communities of fisherfolk who derive their livelihood solely from fishing.

Bugso (Upwelling)

2009-08-06T08:37:00.000-07:00

For a moment, a nation is borne on a wave of an all too fleeting sense of solidarity and nationhood. For an instant it seems as if the social divide has melted; rich and poor flash the "L" to each other, smiling; the political colors, the reds, blues, yellows, blacks and whites and every hue in between march together, for once. Francis M. would have wept seeing that kaleidoscope. And for an instant, a nation's breath deepens, and in that singular moment, it remembers what it is capable of as a people. Being there is to watch history unfold, and one is overwhelmed by a sudden, fleeting realization that by being there, one is part of the making of that history.
RISE UP!

Heart of Darkness

2009-07-25T00:52:00.000-07:00

Inspired by the darkness of David Lynch's cinematic genius, as well as this website. Taken somewhere in Quezon City, I'm not telling where :)

HOY!BAWAL!

2009-07-21T08:12:00.000-07:00

In my freelance shoots, I frequently find myself being accosted by the "authorities". "Bakit ka nagshu-shoot? Para sa'n y'an? Taga media ka ba?", sometimes accompanied by a hint of menace underneath a polite veneer. The message is clear in these situations. "YOU CAN'T SHOOT WITHOUT A PERMIT".(ME in a silent thought baloon; PERMIT?!)A recent post by a friend in his blog agit'ed me again on how photographers are constantly being harangued by The Man. I promptly searched the www and found this piece by an American lawyer, pertaining to photography and US laws. While it can, to some extent, be applied to the Philippine context, I would, as a Filipino photographer, be more assured with a Philippine version of said text. With Philippine journalists apparently being actual targets in a not so hidden war on "terrorism", I think its quite timely to spread the word on this.

Calling on the PCP!

Cancel all Illegitimate Debts

2009-07-08T21:18:00.000-07:00

MANILA, Philippines - Members of the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) staged a protest action in front of the World Bank office here today to demand the total and unconditional cancellation of all debts it is claiming from the Philippines and developing nations. The protest action coincided with the opening of the Group of Eight Nations’ (G8) 35th Summit in Italy which sets among its agenda the development of a comprehensive response to the global economic crisis.

In a statement, FDC Vice President Lidy Nacpil said the longstanding demand of the peoples of the south for debt cancellation is the best economic stimulus program developing nations can use to address the crisis.

2009-06-24T10:26:00.000-07:00

Projekt_desap is back online after being down since late last year. The project is an ongoing human rights documentary launched in 2007 as a response to the worsening incidences of enforced disappearances in the country.

Baybay

2009-06-14T11:28:00.000-07:00

Baybay:1.(n)coastline, beach. 2.(v)to traverse,to cross.

Two fishers traverse the waters fronting Dreamland, a fishing village in Rosario,Cavite, about an hour's ride from Uniwide in Baclaran. Dreamland sits adjacent to a dumpsite and materials recovery facilty which processes the garbage generated by Rosario's population of 94,228 living within a land area of 8.2 square kilometers. Thus, for the residents of Dreamland, living with garbage is a daily reality. The lack of toilets and social infrastructure, and their proximity to Manila and its own deluge of trash flowing down the Pasig River compounds the problem. Yet despite the seeming squallor of their existence, life goes on and they go about their daily preoccupation: making a decent living.

Please bear with the shameless plug . I'm trying to learn website design, which to us photographers, can be an important skill in the world of Web 2.0. The website is being constructed via WIX, a WYSYWYG application which potentially makes webdesign a do-it-yourself endeavor for cash-strapped and busy maniniyuts.

'INDEPENDENCE

2009-06-12T11:12:00.003-07:00

I think I have gotten more cynical with age. One hundred eleven years ago, General Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed the sovereignty and independence of the Philippine Islands from the colonial rule of Spain. Lofty talk but Spain actually sold us out to the Americans for $20 Million.
And we all know what happened between Aguinaldo and Bonifacio.

Iisa'ng Laot (There is but one sea between us)

2009-06-11T00:10:00.003-07:00

While filming an advocacy video for an NGO on community-based coastal resource management, we were fortunate to hitch a side trip to the island of Cobrador, one of the municipal islands off Romblon town. Cobrador is derived from a Spanish word of a variety or kind of stone fish called Cobrador because the island seems to be like a fish half afloat when seen from afar. Its old name was Naguso which is the Romblon Visayan equivalent of Cobrador fish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobrador). Cobrador is only accessible by a 30 minute boat ride from the town pier which only makes one trip a day. The boat is operated by a community organization in Cobrador as an income generating activity to finance their other livelihood projects.
The title Iisa'ng Laot is culled from the need for coastal municipalities and fisherfolk to work closely in managing a shared resource (hence, one sea between us), an idea which the NGO and community organizations wish to spread among other coastal municipalities and villages in the province.

Off topic: the images are taken with a digital camera, but the intent comes from a purely analog heart. (Just a jab at an ongoing film vs. digital debate here:) These pictures as well as these (http://vileydsidiotz.multiply.com/manage#_li_album_89) are strongly influenced by Master Neil Oshima, whose work has turned me on to nature and landscape photography.

Anak ng Pasig (Children of the Pasig River)

2009-05-31T10:13:00.003-07:00

These kids seem immune to the dangers of swimming in, or worse accidentally gulping some of the river's waters. Famed for being probably the most polluted river in the Philippines, the Pasig River has received some long overdue attention via the Sagip-Pasig Movement. A monumental task, what with the river having been a virtual toilet for Manila's factories, hotels, and urban-poor settlers lining its famed banks for decades. This view was made possible via the Pasig River Cruise , an inexpensive and novel way to see another side of Manila. If Recto is the Rectum of Manila according to writer F.Sionil Jose, then the Pasig River is definitely Manila's isaw (intestinal tract).

Hand-made in Photoshop CS2. Just fooled around with the border to emulate the film look. I miss film.

YOSI, BOY

2009-05-25T09:42:00.003-07:00

Katipunan Ave., QC.,2006
Young children ply Manila's streets to help their parents make a meager living from selling cigarettes and candy. A vast majority of these kids will not be able to reach high school.

shadows dancing

2009-05-15T10:30:00.003-07:00

2009-04-28T06:29:00.003-07:00

Edita Burgos, mother of missing activist Jonas Burgos, family members and supporters hold a catholic mass in front of Camp Aguinaldo, the national headquarters of the armed forces of the Philippines, to commemorate the 2nd year of the abduction of Jonas. Burgos, an activist-agriculturist was tagged by the military as a member of the leftist New Peoples Army (NPA).

Jonas Burgos was abducted in 2007 inside a busy mall in Quezon City by four armed men and a woman. While Jonas' whereabouts are as yet undetermined, the plate number of the vehicle used by the abductors had been traced to an impounded vehicle at the 56th IB headquarters Philippine Army Camp in Norzagaray, Bulacan, north of the capital.

In a statement released today, Edita Burgos says the two years..."has been like an eternity of uncertainty...Jonas remains to be missing, two years after. We, the family and friends of Jonas have not given up. We have been constant and consistent in our efforts to locate him. We shall not forget. Though the forces of evil, now present in the very institutions that are vowed to protect the people, shroud the truth about what befell Jonas, we believe that in His time and our perfect time, the truth will be known and justice will be served". The full statement can be found here: http://freejonasburgosmovement.blogspot.com.

Jonas is one of the 193 reported desaparecidos since Macapagal-Arroyo assumed the presidency in 2001.

An ongoing photo-documentary on the Jonas Burgos disappearance can be found here: http://vileydsidiotz.multiply.com/photos/album/83/Sa_Lahat_ng_Sulok

म्य्स्तेरिऔस bagiuo

2009-04-16T00:34:00.007-07:00

The summer capital is probably one of the most photographed tourist destinations in the Philippines। Sometimes one despairs that all "the good shots" have already been exhausted long before। But just one afternoon's walk reveals that mystery still abounds if one only stopped to see.

2009-03-19T11:18:00.007-07:00

"Lola Paring"
This is my tribute to my late Lola Paring, a.k.a Lola "Fruits", who succumbed early this year to a rare blood condition. A much more eloquent tribute by her son Ding can be found here.

2009-03-19T11:16:00.007-07:00

UP's 100th Year
I've always wanted to do a "crowd shot" like this, which, in 50 years might be seen as archival material. dream on leonard hehe

2009-03-19T11:13:00.007-07:00

"A Hard Day's Night"

Laborers "laboring" non-stop to finish SM North's make-over.

2009-03-19T11:04:00.007-07:00

"FOOD SECURITY"

Hunger is still unheard of in a coastal town in Zambales, where even "by-standers" get to take home some fish for the day's meal in exchange for helping push the fishers' boats inland. So-called "tulak", these by-standers sometimes chide each other with the term, which roughly translates to "drug pusher".

2009-03-19T11:00:00.007-07:00

"SAPOT!"

11-year old Osmar examines his spider for fighting fitness. Spider fighting is a favorite past-time for young boys in the rural areas, where PSP's and computers are still rare.

2009-01-27T09:47:00.007-08:00

Tahanan is an ongoing documentary on the lives of the residents of Agusuhin, a fishing community relocated to a mountain to make way for the construction of the massive Hanjin shipyard.

Agusuhin: a tale of dislocation

2008-09-29T10:45:00.007-07:00