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[av_heading heading=’The return of ‘Humans of Iloilo’’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY RHICK LARS VLADIMER ALBAY
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February 3, 2018
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“WHAT are you doing under the scorching heat of the sun?” asks Carlo.
“I’m helping my dad sell these 16 kilos of crabs,” answers the child in Hiligaynon, holding up the writhing shells strung into a bunch.
“So where is your father right now?” says Carlo, scanning the surroundings of the then abandoned Old Iloilo Airport.
“He’s selling charcoal in Guimaras. He wants us to be rich someday.”
“What’s your name again?” Carlo circles back, almost forgetting to ask.
“Richmond,” he answers.
By chance or by fate, the child’s namesake hotel would rise a year or so after on the same boulevard, in the now flourishing Iloilo Business District.
So goes one of first the anecdotes shared by Carlo Gabriel Evidente, the man behind the lens of Humans of Iloilo – part of the global movement to tell the world’s story, one voice, one photo, one conversation at a time.
Encouraged by a friend and inspired by the viral photos of Humans of New York, Carlo decided to take on the challenge of helming and putting together its local incarnation, unique to our culture and points of view, Humans of Iloilo. Armed with a camera, he took to the streets to seek out unique Ilonggo voices and stories of unsung struggles.
“I was not comfortable at first. I doubtedmy talking skills, I had no experience in journalism,” Carlo shares, but since that fateful June day in 2014, he’s interviewed and photographed nearly 300 people for the project.
Carlo’s subjects have ranged from young individuals coping with the loss of a friend, a war veteran nursing heartbreaks,to the people most may label mentally ill but may actually just see the world through different eyes.
“Interviewing people from all walks of life,I realizedyou could find extraordinary stories in ordinary people,”he muses.
The man on the street you pass by everyday but fail to recognize, the elderly woman you may have sat across from in a jeepney once, the young vendor who should be in school instead of peddling peanuts at night – in Humans of Iloilo, their stories are fleshed out and told through sincere words, compelling empathy and understanding in its readers.
After a string of viral photos, Humans of Iloilo was suddenly put on hold, Carlo leaving for Manila for personal reasons. For a few months, the page became inactive, but Ilonggos never grew tired of liking and sharing old Humans of Iloilo posts, eventually convincing Carlo to return to his roots here in the city.
“I’m happy na pagbalik ko ang people who missed Humans were there to welcome me back,” he shares.
With how fast life passes by, sometimes we forget that we’re not the center of the universe, we’re not alone in this world, other people with lives as complex and important as ours call this world their home too, yet we choose to ignore them when they catch the corner of our eye.
“Humans is about you,” explains Carlo. “It’s a venue tell stories. Whether if you’re struggling with your family, you’re coping with disabilities, you’re struggling with being gay: Know you’re not alone.”
“Sharing stories can be empowering. It gives [the people who speak] confidence to not be afraid to admit that they have problems and struggles just like everyone else.”
“If you just know how to start a conversion, most people are actually willing to tell their story even if you’re still stranger to them,” shares Carlo.
Humans of Iloilo remains the only member of the global Humans of Planet Earth formation in the Philippines.Carlo is planning to publish a coffee table book on Humans of Iloilo in the near future, as well as produce advocacy films that tell the stories he sees need to be told.
Like the official Humans of Iloilo Facebook page or visit humansofiloilo.com for more of these unique and heart-warming stories./PN
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