After Life

I have a penchant for things with a history -- which could be anything from a famous artifact to a person to a place. There's a thrill in getting to see a famous artwork close enough to count the strokes of paint, or standing in the same spot someone was brutally murdered. Nothing gets me more excited (and melancholy) than that.

I started taking photos of abandoned buildings for a class, but it all ended up just being for me. These places are swarming with ghosts, with stories, of the people who chose to spend moments of their lives in them. All of these people are gone now, and only those who want to remember will remember their stories.

Welcome to the afterlife.

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The Aduana Building is a Spanish-era customs house in Intramuros. This building has been through an earthquake, demolition, reconstruction, World War II bombings and artillery, and -- wait, there's more! -- eventually abandonment after a fire in the 70's. It still stands, with a multitude of plants battling to escape its confines.

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The Diplomat Hotel in Baguio City is known for its ghosts and its myth before anything else -- rightfully so, considering that it was a vacation house, convent, school, sanitarium, and sanctuary before the Japanese bombed it in World War II. Right after the war, some genius decided to build a hotel and hold psychic surgeries in there. The city has declared the hotel a heritage site since then.

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The Forum was a standalone theater built by Pablo Antonio, a National Artist for architecture, in the 60's. It's located in Rizal Avenue, which was practically the center of life in Manila before it became a victim of the construction of the LRT. As with other theaters, it eventually closed down and its shell now houses several families.

Photos and descriptions by PaCho
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PaCho  is the nickname of a full-time fangirl who wants an infinite amount of money with which to travel the world and buy merchandise. This girl is currently amassing the skills to achieve these goals, and collecting stories and perspectives along the way (to consequently be the best that no one ever was) at a university. She will smile in satisfaction at the fall of the patriarchy and Western domination of international affairs. She is only half-joking about this (which means that she's completely serious).