The Outcast

My name is Aldema, I’m a travel photographer from Israel. Since I started traveling in Asia 4 years ago, I’ve been in many beautiful places, but after a while I got bored from seeing the same touristic side that attracts all the other travelers.

I’ve been taking photos and lived within outcast groups (Manila’s slums and Thailand sea gypsies) to show that the country you visit is not only covered by white-sand beaches, rice terraces and temples.

I have been living with the sea gypsies and mainly with locals of two of Manila’s slums that lives in special surroundings and extreme poverty, such as Smoky mountain – the local dumpsite which is one of the poorest areas in Asia, and home for thousands of Filipinos. Manila North cemetery, the biggest cemetery in the city, but also a community for more than 4000 residents that living among the dead. Even though my plans was mainly about taking photos, I found myself most of the time playing pool (and losing) in the dumpsite, having lunch in the cemetery or drinking local alcohol with the sea gypsies.

It’s maybe the other “dark” side of society, the one that people will warn you about them, but if you looking for people who begging for food or sad faces of poverty, you won’t find it here.