In 2022, I returned to my hometown of Cebu, Philippines, seven years after immigrating to Toronto, Canada. I spent several weeks reconnecting with childhood friends and making new friends in an attempt to regain a sense of familiarity. Being there made me realize how much I had changed since leaving Cebu. At times, I struggled to find a rhythm in conversation, but photographing felt more natural. It became my way of reconnecting with old friends and reorienting myself at home.
Repose and Renewal is a series of intimate photographs centred on rekindled friendships in Cebu, Philippines. Behind each image are conversations, tensions, and moments of recognition through which we acknowledge our shared histories and see shifts in our current identities. Understanding how time and distance have changed us, I photographed them in place of the feelings I, or sometimes we, couldn’t convey.
