blind musicians

the blind are the photographer's ideal subject. or at least those blind to the photographer's presence. 'I felt that one could get a quality of being through the fact that the person did not know he was being photographed,' paul strand once said.





all masks are off, the guard is down, there is no posing, no pretense, there is only truth, a faithfulness to the subject, 'a quality of being'. and when the photographer's subject is blind, the photographer in a sense becomes the blind subject's eyes, seeing him the way he is unable to see himself.







which brings me to blind musicians. i seem to encounter them a lot when travelling, usually meeting them around ports or terminals or streets, as if they were there to "see off" travellers on their way, even if they themselves could not see.







or perhaps, to remind travelers of their own eyes, by showing them what had been lost.





but what the blind musicians have not lost is music. which, to me, gives photographs of blind musicians a certain silent power.





the photograph may show what the blind musician can no longer see, but it is also a photograph of the music of that moment that we, the viewers, could no longer hear.



photos taken in camiguin, december 2009; mactan cebu international airport, november 2009 and march 2010; pier 4 terminal, port of cebu, january 2010; downtown cebu city, january 2010 and may 2010; fort san pedro, november 2004.

a picture a day: june 2010

the sixth month of my on going project 365. it's an open ended project, anything goes, but with one rule: at least a picture a day.

for the january 2010 album of my project 365, click here.
for the february 2010 album of my project 365, click here.
for the march 2010 album of my project 365, click here.
for the april 2010 album of my project 365, click here.
for the may 2010 album of my project 365, click here.
for the july 2010 album of my project 365, click here.
for the august 2010 album of my project 365, click here.






2010.06.01 counting bricks.




2010.06.02 the scariest word in a contract.




2010.06.03 kitten not sharing the spotlight.




2010.06.04 gwapo daw, mandaue city.




2010.06.05 bride's maids, castle peak hotel, cebu city.




2010.06.06 dinner time.




2010.06.07 sunbathing dog, mandaue city.




2010.06.08 flag days, mandaue city.




2010.06.09 faucet and shadow.




2010.06.10 shoe repair lady, hiway, mandaue city.




2010.06.11 three little birds, mandaue city.




2010.06.12 leonardo looks for a job.




2010.06.13 the wave, below the marcelo fernan bridge, mandaue city.




2010.06.14 nice gargoyle, near cebu business park, cebu city.




2010.06.15 first day of school, talamban, cebu city.




2010.06.16 the afternoon's earnings, on a 13C jeepney, cebu city.




2010.06.17 at the st. catherine of alexandria church, carcar, cebu.




2010.06.18 into the light, mandaue city.




2010.06.19 on a trip to the mountains, sitio cantipla, baranggay tabunan, cebu city.




2010.06.20 the world without my glasses: sunday at the mall




2010.06.21 caught by a sudden downpour, talamban, cebu city.




2010.06.22 at the neighborhood internet cafe, mandaue city.




2010.06.23 dead spider and shadow.




2010.06.24 kitten




2010.06.25 at st. michael the archangel church, argao, cebu.




2010.06.26 bookshop, lahug, cebu city




2010.06.27 effective advertising, ayala center, cebu city.




2010.06.28 propping up the sky.




2010.06.29 girl sorting through garbage in front of a billboard for a school, talamban, cebu city.




2010.06.30 watching the noynoy aquino inaugural on tv.

wanted dancer & g.r.o.

juxtaposition is surrealism's greatest gift to photography :D

while i was out taking a walk, i noticed some people curiously sitting below a sign that went:

WANTED
DANCER & GRO
W/ Pleasing Personality
18-25 year's old
apply inside at 8:30 p.m.

better viewed large. click the image to do so.



repost again from my multiply page. taken along the hi-way going to opon, mandaue city, feb. 2010.

why rent when you can own?

what a strange question to ask of people sleeping on the sidewalk. like what lourd de veyra wrote, "there is no landscape more surreal than Philippine life". and in the face of this black comedy, it seems the only recourse is to laugh... though i get the feeling that the joke is on us all.

taken along mango avenue, october 2009

the eyes that haunt, the eyes that bind

"The best way to deal with them of course is to not look them in the eye. At the very least that’s so because eye-contact is the equivalent of the first question you ask the salesperson who knocks on your door. As everyone warns, never do that. Just say, “Sorry,” if you’re in the mood to be polite or slam the door on his face if you’re not. You ask a question and that’s his one foot in the door, which can sometimes be scarily literal.

But more than that, don’t look the ragged children in the eye because if you do, you impale their fleeting forms into reality. You transform a vague and abstract presence into living tissue, into flesh and bone, into solid matter, as solid as the loud rap on your window. You look them in the eye, and suddenly, terrifyingly, movingly, you’re no longer looking at a formless mass, you are looking at a four-year-old—if he’s at all so, it’s not easy to reckon age in age-worn faces—trudging along with not much older company, a torn and worn-out T-shirt hanging over his body like a tent.

But this best way of dealing with the problem is the same best way to make the problem stay. Which is the bind. I’ve always thought the only reason we’ve kept out equanimity in the face of the teeming poverty around us, some of its aspects too mind-boggling to contemplate, is that it is invisible to us. It is invisible to us because we do not see it. We do not see it because we do not look it in the eye. And because we do not look it in the eye, the poor, like beggars, or carolers on the street, cease to exist. They are just a blur, a ghost, an apparition that flits by but is swallowed in the dust and smoke when the light flashes green.

By all means let us not give to carolers on the streets, or out-and-out beggars who badger us with their pain and their humiliation. Though heaven knows that isn’t always easy during Christmas, a season dedicated to discovering the existence of others. But whether we give or not, the point is to not be blind to their being there, to not make them disappear in the mind, if not in space, because they are an inconvenient truth. They will continue to be there in space, whether we see them of not: the beggars, the throwers of soapy water on windshields, the children in the streets, who while waiting for the cars to stop stand in awe before the tailoring shop near where I live, admiring the basketball uniforms that proclaim various teams. They will continue to be there, like an indictment, like an accusing finger, like a question hanging in the air demanding an answer.

Like eyes that haunt. Like eyes that bind."

from an article written by conrado de quiros published on the philippine daily inquirer: http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20091222-243461/Eyes

this is a piece i wish i had written, or at least something like it. it captures what i feel perfectly. i've long since maintained my stance not to give to beggars, especially street children. i thought (and still think) that giving would only encourage them to stay on the streets and beg. and i stuck to that logic, no matter how queasy it felt.



but then this boy came, dragging with him an old woman who might (or might not) be his grandmother. it was raining that afternoon, and i was comfortably seated in a taxi on my way to the mall. then he came knocking on my window. instinctively, i took out my camera to take a shot. but as i adjusted my lens to compose the picture, i made the mistake: through my camera's viewfinder, i looked him in the eye.

and in that instant, the notion i've long since held, the neat formula that i was convinced i'd completely figured out, just melted away. it may have added up correctly, but felt humongously wrong.

i felt my hand slowly reaching for my wallet, but the traffic light had just turned green. the driver didn't seem to notice what was going on, and stepped on the gas. the little boy and the old woman stepped back to the sidewalk, and then they were gone.

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another repost from my multiply page. photo taken near the intersection of cardinal rosales ave. and juan luna st., cebu city, november 2009.

signs of the times

interesting signs, posters, graffiti, and such, from places i've visited around the philippines. reposting this here from my multiply page, but with some changes and additions.

***********



need i say more? restroom graffiti, banilad town center, cebu city.




if a bisaya coño made a no urinating sign, it would probably end up like this. dumaguete city.




if health is wealth, i guess it follows. dumaguete city.




way apil ang di palaihi. ormoc city.




a government engineer's way of wooing his beloved... using public money. nice. daan maharlika, tacloban city.




"wharf porter's ass." hmmm... cagayan de oro.




at least they spelled "committee" correctly. cagayan de oro.




a happy politician. good for him! cagayan de oro.




burger for 35 pesos, but fries and coke for 50 pesos? at a restaurant in mambajao, camiguin.




nice closing time sign. at an eatery in mambajao, camiguin.




that's the spirit! on a truck parked outside paras beach resort, camiguin.




it's funny how one letter in one word can lead to a wide divergence of a statement's meaning between 2 languages spoken on the same island. waray and bisaya are the 2 major languages spoken in leyte. when the statement ("prinsipyo nga diri mapapalit") is read in waray, it means "principle that canNOT be bought". but if read in bisaya, it means "principle that can be bought HERE". tacloban city.






basketball as a vehicle for natural selection. bayawan city, negros oriental.




no need to apologize. sibulan, negros oriental.




good luck, bai. mabolo, cebu city.




it really does slow you down. mandaue city.






lesson learned from watching episodes of CSI: the toilet is not a very good place to hide evidence. at a hotel somewhere in makati.




gibuwagan siguro. mabolo, cebu city.




kerosene is cheap. mandaue city.




this neighborhood sure has a bad reputation. mabolo, cebu city.




gwapo daw. mandaue city.




the equivalent of a no parking sign in the countryside. alcoy, cebu.




you better not be late for lunch! mandaue city.




yet another approach to a no urinating sign. near carbon market, cebu city.




i guess they'll disable you if you enter the room. dalaguete, cebu.




the citizenry showing their sentiments. mandaue city.

***

if this were a contest, this sign would probably be the winner. or rather, the wiener.



no urinating sign, mandaue city.

conclusion: palaihi gyud ta mga pinoy, no?