1. photo

    Mar
    21st
    2011
    life: Twelve years ago, on a trip to the Philippines, photographer Keith Marlowe began visiting Manila’s cemeteries, hoping to shoot its picturesque, New Orleans-style raised tombs. But instead of quiet refuges for the dead, he saw extraordinary settlements of the living: thousands of poverty-stricken Filipinos, who had made squatter’s homes above the graves and bones. Despite the macabre setting, he knew that this was really a story about life, and the struggle to survive in one of the world’s most crowded cities. In this gallery, Marlowe — who has photographed dire situations everywhere from Haiti to Detroit for LIFE.com — shares his unique photographic perspective on these graveyard settlements. Pictured: Children of Manila’s Makati Catholic Cemetery. Life in the Graveyards of Manila I helped work on this project when I worked at LIFE.com over the summer. I learned a lot about photo editing and telling stories just from this photographer’s body of work. There are some startling images but they get to some universal truths about struggling families, fear, community and resourcefulness.  

    life:

    Twelve years ago, on a trip to the Philippines, photographer Keith Marlowe began visiting Manila’s cemeteries, hoping to shoot its picturesque, New Orleans-style raised tombs. But instead of quiet refuges for the dead, he saw extraordinary settlements of the living: thousands of poverty-stricken Filipinos, who had made squatter’s homes above the graves and bones. Despite the macabre setting, he knew that this was really a story about life, and the struggle to survive in one of the world’s most crowded cities. In this gallery, Marlowe — who has photographed dire situations everywhere from Haiti to Detroit for LIFE.com — shares his unique photographic perspective on these graveyard settlements.

    Pictured: Children of Manila’s Makati Catholic Cemetery.

    Life in the Graveyards of Manila

    I helped work on this project when I worked at LIFE.com over the summer. I learned a lot about photo editing and telling stories just from this photographer’s body of work. There are some startling images but they get to some universal truths about struggling families, fear, community and resourcefulness.