Mindoro Island, southwest of Luzon, Philippines.

The ethnic group of Mangyans still resides in the territory preserving its ancient indigenous practices, despite the pressures and influences of modernity.

After the end of the colonialism, this ethnic minority has moved inland from the coastal region, where natives now live thanks to agriculture and little else, refusing to accept the tempting offer of urbanization. This series is the result of the will to investigate the close relationship that exists between this community and the womb that nourishes it.

The portraits were photographed recovering the ancient analogue of the double exposure, leading to increasingly unpredictable.

First a film roll 135 (Neopan Fuji Acros 100) was taken with the faces of the natives. Subsequently, the film was rewound and repositioned in the chamber to proceed to impress on the same frame the second exposure.

The faces of the people are confused and overlapping with the territory. The result is a metaphysical vision in which the boundaries almost disappear to make room for a global view.

What emerges is a telluric symposium and concrete, the purity pact that binds the natives with their mother land.

This work won First Price