2016

2016 - another year that took me to many different and new places.

I spend a month in the Philippines to continue working on my project on death rituals "Dead and Alive". It was as always hard work but people were nice and welcoming as they are the most around the world.

I also traveled to Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Iraq with Danish Refugee Council, documenting their work in these countries.

I had the pleasure of testing the new Fujifilm X-T2 which was in its final stages and to be launched later in 2016. From the very beginning I felt that the X-T2 was my camera, and all images in this little presentation is photographed with the X-T2 (except from one of the tattoo images which is shot with the X-T1).

2016 was also the year where National Geographic bought 30 of my images from my project on death rituals:

I hope you will enjoy this collection of some of my best images from 2017.

Manila - The Karaoke Funeral

Less that 24 hours after landing in Manila I was photographing Elena who died in her home a just outside Manila. During the wake, the family of Elena had set up a karaoke machine for people to pay for singing a last song for Elena. The idea by this is to collect money for the funeral. Unfortunately not many people came by due to bad weather conditions and many power cuts during the 3 days the wake lasted.

Manila - The Cemetery

At Manila North Cemetery it is estimated that more than 10.000 people are living on, among and in the graves - they are literally living among the dead. They have no other options in the overpopulated city of Manila. Many of the inhabitants at the cemetery work as caretakers of the mausoleums they are living in. They keep them clean, light candles and say a prayer for the deceased. Other people are cleaning out old graves when new funerals comes up.

Kalinga Province - Kalinga funeral

In Kalinga Province, Philippines I had the chance to take part in a Funeral in a small village.

Manila - Traffic

The streets of Manila is crazy. I have never seen traffic like that before and of course I had to jump in with the X-T2. However, depicting a total mess like this to give the full sense of the chaos is not always easy. There is no sound or smell in the images, and you don't feel the people pushing you all the time. But I did a few shots trying to capture the ambience.

Horn of Africa

In fall I went to Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia with Danish Refugee Council to document their work and to produce photos and videos for campaigning material.

I wish everyone a happy 2017 and please keep in mind - you are not alone!

- Klaus Bo