Living Amidst Adversity
Calling from her home in Manila, Hannah tells Hundred Heroines’ Enez Nathié about her pathway into photography and how she has found her voice as a storyteller...
Hannah Reyes Morales is a Filipina documentary photographer and storyteller. Dedicated to revealing the gentleness and love within difficult, often violent, situations, Hannah sensitively honours the experiences of the people she portrays. The challenging series Season of Darkness, for example, bears witness to the horrific consequences of the Philippine government’s ‘war on drugs’. The work directly challenges the dehumanising language used by the state to legitimise widespread extra-judicial killings by intimately showing the humanity of victims, their loved ones, and wider communities.
Stories of resilience and community, and explorations of connections to ancestors and landscapes, are recurrent themes within Hannah’s work. Roots from Ashes is an ongoing project that seeks to give voice to the survivors of a brutal act of violence in a small town north of Manila during World War II, while the series Eagle Hunters gives a glimpse into the lives of young people growing up in the wild and expansive Altai region of Mongolia.
Hannah is a National Geographic grantee and received the 2020 International Center of Photography (ICP) Infinity Award for Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism. Publications featuring her work include The Washington Post, The New York Times, National Geographic, Al Jazeera and the vital resource The Photographers’ Guide to Inclusive Photography x Authority Collective.