Under the Lord’s Shadow
Posted on Dec 7th 2009 by jesaznar.
A new photo essay on Maguindanao.
Related pages:
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1943189,00.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/world/asia/11iht-massacre.html?_r=1
Luisita
Posted on Aug 12th 2009 by jesaznar.
click on picture to start slideshow
I met her more than once. On the outside, she was a perfect frame of beauty. But her gaze speaks a long story of bitterness. Of suffering that she endured for decades.
She was Luisita, the venerable hacienda owned by the powerful and influential Cojuangco clan where former president Cory Aquino is part of. It was hailed once as Asia’s largest sugar plantation, and the nation’s symbol of the old feudal system. There were several other haciendas in the country but Luisita stands out as the most distinct of all land disputes.
The recent death of the former president prompted me to once again set foot on this bitter land. I was struck by the deafening silence. A stark contrast of scenery between Manila’s noise about her death and the ironic silence in her own backyard. As if all the tears has run dry. As I have been witness to the sea of tears and emotion flowing in the nation’s capital, I too was a witness during those infamous days in November 2004 where thousands of farm workers shed their tears for the 7 farmers that were killed because they were hungry.
This is a photo story about the Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac that I produced way back in 2004 to 2006. I always wanted to go back to the hacienda and see old friends and familiar faces but was hindered by so many things. One of those was my own safety. Now, after three years, I finally went back after taking an assignment to shoot the wake and funeral of the former president, whose family owns the land. I remember way back in 2005 where the farmers, after suffering many more deaths pursuing their cause, finally got their victory and got their rights back to work on the land. The scene hasn’t changed that much. Years past, the government acquired most of the land to build a freeway, sugarcane crops were replaced by rice fields, and most of the prominent structures like the mill and layers of check points still stand. Poverty is still there. Well, as for me, Luisita still stands as one of my cornerstone in pursing a long term photographic story on land and land reform here in our old feudal country.
More of this story: Aslam
Art. Space. Freedom.
Posted on Jul 30th 2009 by jesaznar.
Child Artists. Kulturang Kalye. QC. 2006 © Jes Aznar
I was lucky to have been born and raised in a community of artists. I remember spending my childhood days in the streets making art while other children busy themselves watching noontime shows at home. I was more at home outside our house, wandering the streets, discovering every nook and alley our small village had.