Whispers: A Post-Halloween Post

I did a mini-photoshoot for halloween. It's been a while since I did people photography (not that I'm a professional photographer but in time I know I will be one) and I think it's not that bad .

Model: Vanexxa Tolentino

Photography & Post-Processing: Me 

What's in the photo?

It’s November once again which means Halloween and Halloween is about  Halloween parties, scary costumes, trick or treats, horror movies, and scary stories. Speaking of which, I will share this timely story and photo. 

It was 2008 when this photo was taken outside our Radio Lab. The guy on the photo was Harley and the one who took it was Grenald, both were my school mates. What happened was that, Harley asked Grenald to take a photo of him. Grenald did exactly that using his phone. So it was done. After several days, Grenald told Harley that there seemed to be someone/something behind his back on the photo and they were both surprised. If you look closely, you’ll notice a pair of legs behind Harley. At first we thought that maybe Grenald photoshopped it to fool us but he told us that he didn’t even know how to use Photoshop. Or maybe it was Ayen, one of my group mates because she’s wearing black skinny jeans at that time just like what the figure was wearing but she told us she didn’t remove her shoes. 

Okay, I’m can’t seem to find the perfect words to describe the photo accurately so I’m borrowing my Professor’s words

In the photo you will see the student posing for the camera. At the left side, just below his right hand, you will see a thin long stick-like figure that appear to be legs of an unknown being. The foot seems to be elevated (it's the shadow below it that causes this impression) and it seems to have six toes (not very accurate as I am not really very sure). As you can see, the legs have no upper body. From the viewer's perspective and if you have seen the location where it was shot, it appears that the physical dimension of the figure does not conform to the actual human form. If somebody stood behind the guy in the photo, his foot should not have been seen and his body should have appeared larger. In case he moves backward to show the foot, it would have been a little farther from the body of the student. The figure which doesn't have a body in the photo cannot possibly bend to hide the upper body because the physical space in the photo do not allow such.

I can vouch this photo was real because I was in the exact place when it was taken. Notice the people at the back, I was one of them. I was sitting on the floor, the one in black shirt and jeans. I was there because our group was having a meeting for our finals on Film Aesthetics class. I swear we were the only people there aside from Harley and Grenald. Harley and Grenald even asked their professor who is knowledgeable in photo post-processing for the photo’s authenticity (the same professor to whom I borrow the words above) and according to him, there is no way that the photo was edited.

Harley also asked around. He asked the janitor if there was something weird happening around the radio lab. The janitor replied that he did see a pair of legs running around when he was cleaning the area in the late hours of the evening.  There were also other scary stories happening on that floor. At some point, the photo became viral esp. with the Masscom students who regularly hold a class in the radio lab. There was also a time when I was with Harley when an English professor called him just to ask him if the photo was real. It turned out that the English professor was teaching on the fifth floor where radio lab was located and he learned about the photo when his Masscom students showed it to him.

So what or who is really behind Harley? Nobody really knows.

How about you? Do you have scary stories? I’d love to hear them.

Gone After Midnight

I’ve mentioned on an older post that I was looking forward to attend a Goth-related event and I did attend it.

My sister and I attended the 8th installment of Eternal Death Wake (EDW). It’s an annual event brought by Subkulture Productions.

I learned about EDW when I was researching on the net about The Late Isabel and other gothic bands in the country. EDW stands for Eternal Death Wake; it’s a yearly Music festival and club event series held every hollows eve in Asia  that specializes in Dark Alternative Music most especially from the Gothic and Industrial Genres. I'm happy that this kind of celebration takes place in the country which also includes performances of the local gothic bands I like. That is why I’m dying to attend it ever since. Unfortunately academic stuff and other things always got on my schedule.  But this time, nothing got on the way. It’s also a good thing that the event was near our place. 

When the event came, some parts of Malate were closed because there was a street party going on and Crobar (the venue) was one of them. So we had to walk a bit to reach the entrance. When we reached it, an inspection was going on for safety reasons. It’s our first time going to such event and we were surprised that water was not allowed; maybe because the clubs wanted the attendees to buy only from them, it’s still business you know. We didn’t bring water but we brought sports drink and the guards told us that it was worse than water so bye sports drink. 

We finally reached Crobar. It’s still early and the place was not jampacked yet. After sometime, the attendees in their Halloween attires started to arrive. The bands started to play and one of the performances I really like was by Switch.

I was really looking forward to the highlight of the event which is the performance of the Tokyo-based industrial Goth band called Psydoll. I wasn’t really familiar of them until the event revealed them as special guest. I got curious so I goggled them. I listened to their music on Myspace and I was blown away. Really awesome music. It took a while before their turn and another half an hour or so for their set-up. Nekoi, the vocalist (also a manga artist) apologized. But all the waiting was pretty worth it. When they started to play, almost everyone gathered around them which explains why I didn’t manage to take decent photos, it’s hard getting around. They made a very awesome performance. It was eargasmic, hypnotic, oh, really amazing band.  I wanted to have a picture with Nekoi  but I got shy. Damn it! Now I’m very regretful.  :( I hope I’ll see them perform again in the future and have my fangirly photo with Nekoi. 

I also looked forward on the tattoo giveaway, I had this feeling I might win. Unfortunately I haven’t heard about it again. Something probably happened.

Anyway, there was also a shibari (Japanese art of bondage) exhibition. I got curious on how it would looked like, you see bondage was done with naked, or if not, almost naked participants. If that’s the case, the people outside would also see it because the club walls were made of glass. Just imagine that we were like inside an aquarium. The exhibition came and the participants were dressed. The tying was done meticulously and I admired how the ropes surrounded the body, it almost looked like a corset. It reminded me of macramé, one of my hobbies. I never thought tying a body would be beautiful. After the body tying,  the participants were  hung on the suspended ring and they were swung for a bit. I forgot take note the name of the man in-charge of the tying. He’s really good at what he does.

 

EDW8 was supposed to end at 3am but it was extended. At that time, people were starting to leave. We decided to stay and finish it until the last band performance. 

The event was good but I wasn’t that satisfied. I was hoping to hear more Goth music and see more gothic attires. But my not-that-satisfied feeling was also my fault because the event wasn’t strictly Goth at all. It also catered to different genres and there was nothing wrong about it. Nonetheless I still enjoyed it. I’ve witnessed different bands of different genres performed. There were also some unusual acts, one vocalist even got naked in the middle of their band’s performance. I’ve seen musical instruments that I’ve never seen before. It still had good music. Psydoll’s performance was a blast. Shibari exhibition was awesome. It was still worth seeing.