LEAH A VALLE

Artist / Visual Ethnographer from Southern Mindanao, Philippines

Her main medium is photography. She’s photographed, exhibited, and independently curated in and outside Asia including the Philippines, Hong Kong, Morocco, France, US, and Bahrain.

IN LIMBO

IN LIMBO is a qualitative study of Filipina migrant workers in Hong Kong. This project is a three-year research and visual exploration focusing on women migrant”s physical and cultural displacement, their abstract sense of home, and their ability to adapt and develop spatial empowerment through cultural and physical appropriation.

Photographing Mindanao

Around 1000 Lumad / indigenous people evacuated Talaingod last April 2, 2014 due to intense militarization. Bearing only what they can carry on their backs, they walked from the mountains for three days to reach Davao city to seek refuge.

There are many numbers of babies, lactating mothers, and pregnant women evacuees in the group.

Until now, this group is still displaced.

Classified as Category 5, Bopha, or Typhoon Pablo, as it is locally called, pulverized Northern Mindanao at the speed of 250 km/hr last December 4, 2012.

90% of the population are farmers and fisherfolks. Many kids were sent to school because of copra. It takes 7 years to grow a coconut tree. The community is estimated to fully recover after 10-12 years. No one can afford to send anyone to college until then.

is the market place for sale?

There are ongoing talks of the Baguio Market being offered to the highest bidder for “modernization”. And presently the winning bid is favoring SM. Being the heart of the town and of the local’s economic and social activities, a lot are alarmed. Institutionalizing a public space would limit vendors’ access to trade thereby impacting their economic capabilities to thrive.