Congress in the Evening

One night on my way home, I was especially jumpy because I had my camera with me...so I took photos.

I took these photos in the wee hours of the night at the House of Representatives. It was unfortunate that I was unable to capture an image of the "Five Housemates" who are going about their nightly activities in and around the compound since they were at a meeting.



With regards these "housemates", varying opinions are about but I've heard from some lawyer friends that charges the Department of Justice or rather Malacanang is planning to dish out against these five legislators would be pretty flimsy. The fact is however, Malacanang has the resources to make life for these five hell, even if only for a month or two under full state custody. So, rather than submitting themselves for arrest, I think being in the custody of the House of Representatives is far better - in terms of accomodation at least.

I tried to capture the ambiance of the place - its desolateness, darkness and the way dim service lights makes everything seem flat. I wanted to capture the quality of light as well: the greenish tinge of fluorescent bulbs, the warmth of tungsten and halogen, the ambient light coming from the floodlights outside of the building.



Some of the angles may seem weird but I had to find a place to mount the camera against to avoid blur at greater than 1 sec exposures. And I made use of a variety of things: Open doors, chairs, poles, walls and window sills - practically anything that I can lean the camera against. It was fun to finally get the images recorded after months of wondering how such and such scenes would end up looking once captured.

On a final note, we have always suspected that those CCTV cameras scattered everywhere in the compound were mere props during regular days. I have to admit, I was intimidated by them the first time I saw them, but you get used to it and become desensitized to what it represents. Soon, you feel comfortable making faces at these silent, motionless eyes. Well, after going about taking my photographs and was about to leave, I was intercepted by security and was asked who I was working for and what purpose was my taking of pictures near the Speaker's Office. All that time, I thought I had been alone in that hallway.



Have they awaken, or have they always been silently awake, watching our every move with our cynicism being their most effective cover?