ROOTS

Portraits of Mangyan People, Philippines natives. Their lives are nowadays put at risk because mass tourism and industrialization deeply modify the territory. 135 analog double exposure (Fuji Neopan), unpredictable results.

Mindoro Island, southwest of Luzon, Philippines.

The ethnic group of Mangyans still resides in the territory preserving their original indigenous practices despite the pressures and influences of modernity. After the end of colonial domination, this ethnic minority moved from the coastal region to hinterland, living today only thanks to agriculture and little else, refusing to accept the seductive offer of urbanization. This series of portraits is the result of the desire to investigate the close relationship that exists between this community and the womb that nourishes it. The modality of the work eludes the most canonical mechanism of setting the portrait in a frame that contextualize it.

These portraits have been shot recovering the antique analog technique of double exposure, which leads to unpredictable results.

Faces of people are confused and overlapped to the territory, resulting to a metaphysical vision where boundaries nearly disappear in order to leave space and place to a global vision. What emerges is a telluric and concrete symposium, the covenant of purity that ties the natives with their mother land.