The Intramuros Photo Walk: An Epiphany from the Walled City
I’m no history lover. In fact, I only visited Intramuros again after many years because I was required to attend a photo walk for my photography workshop. I wasn’t ecstatic about it because, honestly, if you’ve been on countless fieldtrips to Fort Santiago (see Intramuros: Your Affordable and Historical Weekend Destination), you would really much rather skip the whole tour.
When I took my camera out, I realized that all of my workshop classmates were taking artsy landscape shots. The struggling artist in me, however, wanted something unique, so I sat down on the street and started thinking. Then, something caught my eye, and I captured this.
It’s a missing brick! It doesn’t just symbolize the place’s old age or the government’s lack of provisions to enhance the venue, though. What really struck me were the surfaces of these bricks and how they have been cemented through time along with the eventful happenings at Intramuros.
I further roamed around and snapped a few close-ups of the area.
A place doesn’t become historical because of its grandeur. It becomes historical through the stories it can tell. Nowadays, what we do is go to a certain place, post a photo on Instagram and leave.
We don’t ask any relevant questions anymore.
We don’t wander. We don’t explore. We just visit.
Yes, a picture can paint a thousand words. But, if you zoom into the picture, it can reveal millions. Not just millions of words, but millions of stories we haven’t heard of.
Intramuros, along with many other places in Manila, has so much to tell. But the real question is: will anyone still listen?
