Hannah Reyes Morales documents tenderness amidst adversity. Her photography, both visceral and intimate, explores how resilience is embodied in daily life. She grew up in Manila, witnessing loved ones depart from home each year. These departures, along with the discovery of a shelf of dusty photographic magazines, stirred her interest in concerned photography. Morales has reported on forced marriages in Cambodia, documented women’s experiences with assault in the ongoing conflict in South Sudan, explored the long-term effects of colonization on women’s bodies in the Philippines, photographed the toll of Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, and documented the Filipino Diaspora. In 2019, she participated in the World Press Photo’s Joop Swart Masterclass and received the Tim Hetherington Visionary Award. She is a 2020 National Geographic Explorer and the World Economic Forum named her a cultural leader in its ASEAN forum. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and National Geographic Magazine, among others.
In a place where fear and violence have become normalised, photographer Hannah Reyes Morales has been seeking out moments of tenderness amid the adversity.
Against the backdrop of a drug war, where fear and violence have become normalised, photographer Hannah Reyes Morales has been seeking out moments of tenderness amid the adversity… while learning to understand the place that’s shaped her.
Hannah Reyes Morales photographed scenes of death in Manila during the anti-drug campaign. She later returned to those sites to capture the daily lives of residents living in the midst of violence.
