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Lola's Kitchen
Lola's Kitchen
Regular price
$280.00 CAD
Regular price
$280.00 CAD
Sale price
$280.00 CAD
Quantity
Couldn't load pickup availability
San Miguel, Bulacan, Philippines 2020
Premium 260gsm Photo Paper Luster Finish - 20"x28"
'Lola' is the tagalog word for 'Grandmother'.
When I was visiting the Philippines, I spent a large portion of my trip at my late Lola's house. It's about three hours north of Manila in a rural community surrounded by rice fields. My Lola's house—like many houses in the Philippines—is a concrete house with a corrugated iron sheet roof; these houses are built to withstand typhoon season. The house is 50 years old, and all the wood used inside is rotting and being eaten away by termites.
There’s a lot of character in the kitchen, and I love the afternoon lighting. A jalousie window on the left brings in a warm glow that bounces off the old, dirty walls. Layers of old seafoam green paint chip and peel away—for some reason, Filipinos love this colour for their walls. Above, a wooden shelf barely supports some Tupperware containers. Shiny metal ladles and spatulas offer a nice contrast to the dilapidated, matte background. Exposed, blue plastic pipes split off in multiple directions, producing faint water pressure. A thin, cheap plastic bag holding bio-waste hangs from a nail in the wall and is constantly being ransacked by an army of ants. The sink, entirely shaped out of concrete and misaligned white tiles, is always clogged. A poorly installed pipe connecting the sink to the wall sends most of the water straight to the backyard, while the rest leaks down to the rocks and sand sitting under the sink. At night, there's a frog that likes to take shelter and enjoy the wet environment that the clogged pipes provide. The polished concrete floors are more slippery than ice when wet.
The last time I visited the Philippines before this trip, I was 10 years old. I have a clear memory of seeing a pack of my uncle's Marlboro Menthols in the garage; I took one and found my cousin so we could go smoke it. I remember picking up a lighter from this kitchen counter, and we discreetly smoked our first cigarette in the garage. When I came back to the Philippines as an adult, this kitchen looked exactly the same, aside from being 25 years older and dirtier.
I first saw this angle of the kitchen coming down from the bedroom stairs and thought, “This would make a great photo.” I’m glad I took the photo because my parents renovated the kitchen soon after, and now this view is gone forever.
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There’s a lot of character in the kitchen, and I love the afternoon lighting. A jalousie window on the left brings in a warm glow that bounces off the old, dirty walls. Layers of old seafoam green paint chip and peel away—for some reason, Filipinos love this colour for their walls. Above, a wooden shelf barely supports some Tupperware containers. Shiny metal ladles and spatulas offer a nice contrast to the dilapidated, matte background. Exposed, blue plastic pipes split off in multiple directions, producing faint water pressure. A thin, cheap plastic bag holding bio-waste hangs from a nail in the wall and is constantly being ransacked by an army of ants. The sink, entirely shaped out of concrete and misaligned white tiles, is always clogged. A poorly installed pipe connecting the sink to the wall sends most of the water straight to the backyard, while the rest leaks down to the rocks and sand sitting under the sink. At night, there's a frog that likes to take shelter and enjoy the wet environment that the clogged pipes provide. The polished concrete floors are more slippery than ice when wet.
The last time I visited the Philippines before this trip, I was 10 years old. I have a clear memory of seeing a pack of my uncle's Marlboro Menthols in the garage; I took one and found my cousin so we could go smoke it. I remember picking up a lighter from this kitchen counter, and we discreetly smoked our first cigarette in the garage. When I came back to the Philippines as an adult, this kitchen looked exactly the same, aside from being 25 years older and dirtier.
I first saw this angle of the kitchen coming down from the bedroom stairs and thought, “This would make a great photo.” I’m glad I took the photo because my parents renovated the kitchen soon after, and now this view is gone forever.
-
Read more about the collection Fast—Slow
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