A closer look at Veejay Villafranca’s Signos
EASTERN SAMAR, PHILIPPINES – A view of the damaged coconut plantations in Guiuan town as seen from the weather station, January 2014.
DISPLACED EARTH/SIGNOS SERIES 2009 – 2015
Photograph by Veejay Villafranca
A dead pig lies under the hood of an old passenger jeepney, its light-colored flesh begrimed with mud and dirt. On the hood of the jeepney are a pair of leather shoes, a couple of notebooks, and two little stuffed animals laid out to dry. A framed family photo is littered on the ground almost indistinguishable from the ruins—whether its subjects are still alive or not is unknown. The remains of what was a classroom is rendered roofless, its drenched armchairs still standing like steadfast soldiers who survived a terrible war.
These black-and-white images look like scenes from a suspense film, but sadly they aren’t. They’re records of the aftermath of typhoons that ravaged the Philippines in recent years—typhoons that have become stronger and more destructive due to climate change. Filipino photographer Veejay Villafranca has been documenting environmental refugees displaced by typhoons and other climate change-related issues and has put together the best images from his environmental work in his first book Signos, published by Mapa Books.
Traditional meets modern
LEYTE, PHILIPPINES – A multiple exposure image of downtown Tacloban, May 20, 2015.
DISPLACED EARTH/SIGNOS SERIES 2009 – 2015
Photograph by Veejay Villafranca
Veejay’s photos combine the best of both traditional and modern worlds. Black-and-white images coupled with multiple exposures make for artful, dreamlike, and sometimes surreal images.
Veejay said he’s more comfortable using black and white, following documentary tradition. “Most documentarians would opt to use black and white because it takes out the distraction of color, if you want to be purist about it,” he said. Unlike documentary photos in the old days, which are a bit blurry and grayish, Veejay’s images are high-contrast, sharp, and gritty—highlighting the harsh realities of a worsening environmental situation.
The concept for Signos, according to Veejay, was inspired mainly by the works of two photographers—Soulscape Road by Indonesian photographer Oscar Motuloh and Sweet Life by the late Dutch photographer Ed Van der Elsken. “[Motuloh] documented the aftermath of the recent tsunami in 2006. Black and white, gritty, pushed, grainy, but no people. That’s where the idea played—dystopian, barren and everything,” Veejay said.
Sweet Life is the name of a boat that Van der Elsken rode on his trip to the Philippines as part of a 14-month world tour he embarked on, together with his wife Gerda, in 1959. Van der Elsken’s cinematic and sometimes evocative images present mundane scenes in not-so-mundane way, which is what early street photographers endeavored to achieve. “Ed Van der Eslken, that’s his style. It only gives you hints, suggestive,” said Veejay.
