BackpackLove

LANDSCAPES

Manila Bay, 2008. I spent almost a month going back and forth to this place in Manila. The kids and I had fun shooting their portraits and just hanging out.I still need to go back to give them some of the pictures they "ordered" me to take.

Negros sugar plantation, 2008. I went on a motorcycle ride to shoot these places. It was an "on the road" kind of project for an international institution. I lost a filter while changing my lenses midway. Its just one of the hazards of the job, I guess.

Trash on Manila Bay, 2008. Lisa and I were shooting a family that was trying to eat their lunch along Manila bay when i saw this image. Then we met a guy in a National Geographic shirt standing nearby watching us "girls" and said, "hey, you can put your white balance in cloud condition". Tried it and it worked ok:)

Basketaball at sunset, 2008. Another "last shot" for the day as we left to go back and have a cold beer after the day's busy pace.

OBANDO FERTILITY DANCE

Women and couples line up to be " blessed".

Plenty of childless women go to this feast each year.

Women who have diseases located in their womb area also go and have their bodies "blessed" by the ritual in Church.

A woman holds her womb area after the ritual.

The young priest holds a religious symbol on the young woman's womb.

A couple celebrate their child who was born after their attendance in the religious feast.

Couples wait for the religious dancing to arrive at the Church.

This woman has danced at the religious feast for the last 2o years.

The Obando fertility dance occurs every month of May in Obando, Bulacan, a province about thirty minutes away from Manila. The religious feast is in honor of three saints: St. Clare, St. Paschal,and Our Lady of Salumbao who are said to be powerful enough to grant the wishes of childless couples and unmarroed single men and women. There are also those who come and seek good fortune and so they also join the couples who dadnce in the streets for these saints.

HOMECOMING: AN IBALOY STORY

An Ibaloy wake is almost always the only chance for family and clans to come together and be reacquainted with one another again. "Homecoming" tells that story.

Ibaloys are originally from the Southern part of Benguet province in Northern Luzon, Philippines. Some now live in other provinces like Nueva Viscaya in search of better economic gain.

"Homecoming" is the story of being back in one's old village to attend to the traditional ways of the clan. As the youngest male sibling, my grandfather's cousin Lorenzo Bodong came home to make sure that his brother's funeral would follow tradition. The wooden coffin was from a pinetree cut from across his brother's house. The wake was full of relatives that had not seen one another in months and sometimes years. It was also my way of reconnecting with my heritage as an Ibaloy.