Series 01

A Sidewalk Funeral of Sorts

2026 · Manila South Cemetery, Manila, Philippines · 3 photographs

Most photographs taken on November 1 stay inside the cemetery walls, where families gather on top of tombs among candles and flowers. This year at Manila South Cemetery, I stayed outside on the pavement to watch the crowd moving along the perimeter road. Walking those blocks, I started noticing how ordinary gestures, work, and resting postures on the sidewalk echoed the exact stages of a burial. Sequenced as a triptych, these three frames piece together a makeshift funeral happening out in the open street.

3 Photographs

Sermon — Street preachers holding cardboard signs in traffic outside Manila South Cemetery

Pallbearers — Men in matching black shirts gripping the handle and corners of a white Styrofoam cooler box

Vigil — Two women seated beneath a sidewalk Virgin Mary wall niche between street vendors outside the cemetery