Biel Calderon's Videos (PORTFOLIOSNET) - PORTFOLIOSNET

Made In China

2012-10-24T22:05:40.934Z

Photographs taken in December 2010. Guangdong province (China).

Video from 2011. Beijing (China)

Music by "Free Royalty Free Music by DanoSongs.com"

Ten Ton Matrix - "Avant Garde" Sound Effects

The Black Nazarene

2012-10-24T22:04:50.824Z

Teaser Trailer of "The Black Nazarene 2011"

Song "I dunno", by Grapes (2011)

Licensed under Creative Commons

About the Black Nazarene (via WIKIPEDIA)

The Black Nazarene, known to devotees in Spanish as Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno, is a life-sized, dark wooden sculpture of Jesus Christ carrying a cross, believed to be miraculous by many Filipino Catholics.

Originally with fair complexion, it turned dark after it survived a burning ship on its arrival from Mexico. The image is currently in the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo district, Manila, Philippines, where it is venerated weekly with Friday Novena Masses. There are also three annual processions associated with this icon, most notably on January 9, celebrating its transfer and enshrinement in the present Basilica, and is attended by several million devotees.

The statue's original Mexican sculptor is unknown but the image arrived in Manila via a galleon ship from Acapulco, Mexico. Folk tradition attributes the dark color of the statue to a fire on the ship carrying it, charring the white image to its present dark complexion.

Church records in Intramuros district note that there were two identical images of Black Nazarene brought to Manila. The first was kept in San Nicolas de Tolentino church in Bagumbayan and later transferred to Intramuros when the old edifice was demolished. This Black Nazarene was bombed and destroyed in the 1945 Battle of Manila.

The other statue was given by the Recollect Priests to the Quiapo church, and it has been often mistaken by many to be the first destroyed statue during the war.

To protect the image, the Quiapo Basilica commissioned a replica. The head and hands of the original image are now placed on the copy of the body while the old torso holds the new head and hands. Both images are used for processions, alternating every other year except in 2007, when the entire statue was put back as a whole for its 400th anniversary.

The religious veneration of the Black Nazarene is rooted among Filipinos who identify themselves with the Passion of Jesus Christ. Many devotees of the Black Nazarene relate their poverty and daily struggles to the wounds and tribulations experienced by Jesus, as represented by the image. Although the patron saint of the basilica itself is Saint John the Baptist, the Black Nazarene overwhelms it due to mass appeal. Devotees also pay homage by clapping their hands at the end of each mass offered at the shrine.
Every Friday of the year is locally known as Quiapo Day, and is dedicated to the Black Nazarene, with the novena being held not only in the basilica but in other churches nationwide. Similar to Baclaran Day, many public transportation associate this term with an increase of traffic due to visiting devotees.

There are three annual processions when the statue is brought out for public veneration, January 9, Good Friday, and New Years Day. The procession during the January 9 feast commemorates the Translación, referring to the transfer of the image to its present shrine in Quiapo church.
The Black Nazarene is carried into the streets for procession in a shoulder-bourne carriage known to devotees as the andas. The devotees wear the colour maroon and walk barefoot as an act of penance for Jesus on his way to Mount Calvary. Traditionally, only men are permitted to hold the ropes pulling the image's carriage, but in recent years female devotees have also participated in the procession. These rope pullers are traditionally called namámasán.

People who have touched the Black Nazarene are reported to have been cured of their diseases, and Catholics come from all over Manila to touch the image in the hopes of a miracle. Towels or handkerchiefs are hurled to the marshals and escorts guarding the Black Nazarene with requests to wipe these on the statue in hopes of the miraculous powers attributed to it "rubbing off" on the cloth articles.

The procession held on the feast day is notorious for the annu

Singin' in Manila

2012-10-24T22:03:59.136Z

What happens when your photographic assignment is canceled because it's raining cats and dogs?

Check Point

2012-10-24T22:02:50.661Z

Sri Lanka, November 2010.

When most of us were celebrating Christmas 2004, a devastating tsunami hit the coast of the island of Sri Lanka, leaving 35,000 deaths and thousands more missing and displaced. The paradise became a nightmare for most people in the affected regions. Coasts devastated, houses turned into dust and a mixture of metals and wood. Dead bodies float in the water. It was an Incomplete sentence heavy disaster for this Indian Ocean island. However, the great wave (from the Japanese tsu, ''port'' or ''harbour'' and nami, ''wave''; It literally means big wave in harbour), coincided with a devastating war.

There's almost three decades of war between the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE forces (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), which caused, like the tsunami, thousands of dead and displaced (about 300,000 according to United Nations). Displaced people, which nowadays continue packing the different camps that are spread around Northern regions of the island. According to the government, 70/80% of displaced people will be resettled by the end of 2009.

The vast majority came from Tamil, an ethnic minority in Sri Lanka. Tamil person is the native group that formed the defeated LTTE army, which fought for the creation of an independent state in the northeast of the island (Jaffna peninsula, Trincomalee city and surroundings) and also fought for the rights of the Tamil population.

Difficulties of many NGOs to work in the area, impossibility of press (local and international) to document what happens in these IDP’s camps, nuisances for people, which is close to these areas. The Sinhalese army has these areas under control, avoiding the presence of external actors. The government established the so-called High Security Zones (HSZ's) in early 80s; areas where exist military installations, which are strongly monitored. Government draws slowly what’s happening around different refugee camps. Biased information, controlled and strongly calculated.

Sri Lanka has suffered too much in recent decades: war, natural disasters, political instability. After the war, and practically recovered from the tsunami, a new panorama is presented to the people of Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan people are a Incomplete sentence population with longing for stability and welfare, with optimism but with too many uncertainties. A country under tight control of law forces. A country currently held by a president who is actually branded a dictator. Still is an uncertain future for Sri Lanka after the war.

Easter Multimedia - Crucifixion in Philippines - For publication

2012-10-24T22:01:53.192Z