Maligcong Elders Portraits: Documentation Continues and the Importance of Building Trust

I know it's been kinda slow in coming along, this personal elders documentation project I've planned about two years ago. Can't blame some people, mostly posters in FB, for suggesting I just come to their place and take shots. I appreciate the welcome but building trust, especially among the village elders is not built overnight.  Nor is it built on the strength of two or three visits (case in point:  I've been visiting every 2-3 months the past 4 1/2 years). I deviated from Maligcong a bit by heading to Alab Oriente on the hope of finding Apo Herbert Todyog, probably the oldest living citizen of Bontoc, but I aim to continue my Maligcong advocacy. I can't really blame some of the locals for refusing to pose for the camera.  The plain truth can be painful to admit -- they've been burned by one too many camera-wielding tourists/visitors/photographers either stealing a shot or two, or brazenly taking a picture and maybe promising to give a print copy but NEVER did.   There have been cases of requests from the family of an elder who passed on for a picture to remember their loved one by but were either openly refused or tacitly ignored. It's a sad thing really. And one that bears a burden to future interactions with photographers who mean well.

Anyway, on this January 2019 visit, I added six faces to the Maligcong Elders gallery; some we really have to coax to oblige for a picture or two. There were colorful people my guide on this occasion, Gina Ati-oan, and I, have to respect for their vehement refusal to pose. Still, a bright point to our visit to Fangurao was bumping into one of my female subjects last November. I remembered that she really didn't want to pose for a picture when my friend, Suzette, and I, bumped into her coming home from working in the fields. When I handed her prints of her picture, she let out a loud laugh, exclaiming that she's old and wrinkled. I guess bringing some joy to the elders is worth the time and effort. Maybe word will get around that some crazy regular visitor to their place go around taking pictures of their peers and for a change, comes back and hand them a copy -- to smile, to laugh, maybe even to fuss about.

(All portraits taken with a Sony A6000 + Sony 50mm f/1.8 lens © 2019 Oggie Ramos)

Elders of Maligcong Documentation Advocacy Project

Anti Awwanen laughing shyly

My personal Elders of Maligcong advocacy project took almost two years to get started.  But start, it did just last November even though we only spent essentially two and a half days there (travel times from Baguio and later onto Banaue severely cut the stay).  Four years after first being drawn to Maligcong, I keep coming back as I've sort of found a second home in the mountains.

When my feet first touched ground here, I found a tranquil community, very well off the tourists' radar.  Now, it maybe on the cusp of popularity, having been "found" by travel operators and social media fanatics.  Still, I see Maligcong as emblematic of the Philippine condition -- a very peaceful, beautiful place peopled by a friendly community caught between the traditions of the past and the commercial possibilities of the present and future.  The population here continues to dwindle with the passing of the years, both the young and the adults venturing to the cities, bigger provinces, even overseas, to find better-paying opportunities.   Ma'am Juanita, who I last saw during my visit three months ago, and who welcomed me to her house and gave me some papayas and bananas, was among the latest to try their luck abroad.  It makes me sad to learn about this.