Lomography

Just before the crack of dawn, devotees to the village patron saint - St. John the Baptist - started to walk in the dark streets of Bibiclat clad in dried banana leaves. All headed to the nearby farmlands to soak the thick layers of camouflage in mud, including their faces and entire bodies. They have been doing this since World War II whereby local stories would say that many men in the village were saved from persecution by firing squad by the Japanese soldiers when it rained hard on the feast of St. John the Baptist. Everyone including their aggressors took refuge inside the church. Such historical incident is widely perceived in the community as a miracle and since then has attracted many devotees. The use of dried banana leaves as camouflage is to appropriate the humble life of the saint. Devotees walked around the village asking alms in the form of candles or small money to buy candles which would then be offered during the mass in front of the church. While some people would view the religious practice to have some elements of pagan ritual, the local Catholic church has embraced and supported this folk tradition. Used my own DIY pseudo-revolog slide film to produce special effects and to texture the meaning(s) of each shot. I used lightning here not as a destructive force but as a way to communicate the extraordinariness of my experience as an outsider looking into a unique living tradition.