₱2400
By Bernardo Bacosa
Printed by Hemlock in Canada, ©2025.
Nakita Sa Makati: Seen at the Ebb is a photobook I published in 2026 that explores the overlooked edges of Makati City beyond its gleaming business district and affluent, gated enclaves.
The title derives from the Tagalog word makati, referring to the river’s receding tide—an apt metaphor for communities living at the ebb along the Pasig River. Between 2017 and 2023, I walked these outer barangays, bearing witness to lives often eclipsed by the city’s wealth.
The photographs in this book are not statistical reports. Instead, they reveal, through vivid and intimate moments, how ordinary people navigate an urban landscape at low ebb. Through these images, I explore five interlocking themes: limited access to resources, resilient self-help, inventive ways of finding joy and food, unguarded devotion to loved ones, and a humble faith that steadies the spirit.
Whether portraying a family soothing their quadruplets, children improvising games beneath a streetlight, or a pedicab driver dressing smartly for the foggy dawn, each image invites viewers to look again—and to reflect on what it means to live “at the ebb,” and what we might learn from lives lived there.
I hope the work will “comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable,” reminding us that dignity, grace, and beauty can endure even in life’s ebb.
About the Photographer
Before he launched his photoaraphy career in 2015, Bernardo Bacosa was a corporate planner, a country general mananer for a major sportswear brand and a project develaper for non-profit organizations.
Working on projects far non-profit organizations provided Bernardo the capability not only to see the “big picture” and deliverables in an engagement but to also profoundly connect with and respect the dignity of his project’s beneficiaries. Photography on the other hand, provided Bernardo the sense to grasp that the “devil is in the details” ot not just seeing flows and patterns of aesthetic elements but also in the nuances of drawing out an authentic depth of feeling in the wink of a moment.
Bernardo finished his Bachelor of Arts in Economics at the University of the Philippines, his graduate studies in industrial economics at the Center for Research and Communication in Manila and his MBA degree at Queen’s University in Canada. He studies photography largely through self-directed learning, but he took up various phatography courses through institutions like Magnum Photos and the Palm Springs Photo Festival.
His first photography book which was about the streets of Metro Manila, entitled “Ating ltimo Adios” was published in 2015. He exhibited his photos from this baok at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Museum.
He has lived in Manila, Jakarta, Toronto, Houston, and Los Angeles and is now based in Lake Forest, California. His eyes as a child were colored and are reqularly rejuvenated in his hometown situated in the wonderful island of Palawan.
Description: 111 pages : illustrations ; 20.3 x 20.3 cm
Language: English
ISBN: 978-8-9925159-0-9
In stock
