About Children of the Mist

“Children of the Mist” (batang hamog) is a borrowed term from the Filipino language that has been applied to the crazy obsessive basketball culture of the Philippines.  This saying specifically refers to the poverty-stricken youth of the country, living in the shadows of the slums, that appear and vanish just as quickly as mist in the night.  The children who flock to basketball hoops and courts after the sun falls have also been referred to by this title.  Metro Manila is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, with shantytowns packed with locals and families enduring extreme poverty, harsh climates, and unrelenting pollution.  For the people who grow up here, there is an escape--a place where they can forget the harsh reality of their everyday lives, even just for a moment.  This escape can be found on just about every block and street corner in the city.  This is the game of basketball. 

Imported and learned from the American military bases during World War I, the Filipino sport culture adopted the game of basketball, and it quickly became entwined within the fabric of everyday life.  From makeshift neighborhood hoops to the arenas of the professional leagues, basketball is everywhere. It is even played among the tombs of the city’s cemeteries by the squatters who take up residence there. The rural areas and islands in the Philippines are no exception to the basketball-crazed streets of the big cities, like Manila.  Instead of courts surrounded by busy traffic, decomposing concrete apartment buildings, and rickety townships, the courts of the rural islands are framed by tall palm trees, open fields of grazing cattle, and modest multi-generational family homes.  Life is much slower here, quieter and calmer, but the love for the game of basketball is no less passionate.  So much so that most of the children and adults play barefoot, pounding away at the concrete with only their exposed soles to protect them.

Riding around the islands on my motorbike or in a taxi in the city, I could not help to notice all the courts and hoops I would pass and all the people that were using them.  Growing up as a total basketball junkie and a “gym rat” myself, I was quickly drawn to the basketball culture in the Philippines as I would watch the locals play during the last hours of the day, escaping the heat and humidity.  This connection was one I was longing for, being halfway around the world, homesick and alone.  This project was the organic melding of three life-long loves: travel, photography, and basketball.  So “Children of the Mist” was born--it is my documentation of the deeply passionate and obsessive Filipino basketball culture, both in rural and urban settings, my connection to this foreign land and the people through a familiar and equally loved game, and how the game influences everyday life in the Philippines.