header image

HOME

This is the blog of Ian Rosales Casocot. Filipino writer. Sometime academic. Former backpacker. Twink bait. Hamster lover.

Interested in What I Create?



Bibliography

Monday, February 05, 2007

entry arrow9:42 AM | How Other People See Home

Peace Corps Tommy Schultz -- I've seen him around town -- has a website containing journals and photo albums that document his very long stay in Dumaguete. Quite interesting. (And it helps that he doesn't look too bad himself.) Then there's Fulbright scholar Rosanna Brillantes documenting the filming of the infamous (or notorious?) shamans of Siquijor. The resulting documentary, The Healers, should be a fascinating ethnographic look at a much-maligned (but I think completely misunderstood) local tradition.

It can be very interesting to know how outsiders exactly feel and see your world. I've long since given up trying to see Dumaguete with fresh eyes. Every time I take a photograph of this and that, I inevitably churn out generic stuff informed by the vocabulary of tourist brochures. (Is this because all locals have an innate need to shine positive light on own our places?) So when people like Tommy and Rosanna (and for that matter, my photographer-friend John Stevenson) show us some snippets of home through their work, we reel from the shock and the surprise of seeing the familiar in completely new light.

Labels: , , ,


[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich




GO TO OLDER POSTS GO TO NEWER POSTS