from some islands ago, we dream

Conservation photographer GAB MEJIA on the power of stories, photography, and community.

- GAB MEJIA

IT WAS AN EERIE AFTERNOOON IN SEPTEMBER 2009, at the height of Typhoon Ketsana (locally named Ondoy), when my family’s home in Metro Manila became submerged in flood water. Our old family albums, artworks, tables, and wooden chairs bellowed in the depths of torrential rain from the distant ocean that ultimately surrounds our island nation. I rushed, climbing to the second floor of our house, a privilege, the last island left, as my family’s belongings slowly slipped away. I held on tightly to the loving arms of my parents and my late grandmother. More than 700 people died in the typhoon.