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ND People's Choice Award - Honorable Mention

Javier sanchez-monge escardo (Spain)
TYPHOON HAIYAN THE APOCALYPSE

TitleTYPHOON HAIYAN THE APOCALYPSE

Entry descriptionIn the morning of the 8 of November 2013, at 5am local time in the Philippines, the Category 5 Super typhoon Hayan (Yolanda) struck the Philippines with its winds reaching 170 mph, provoking almost 7000 casualties and around 2000 people missing. It was the deadliest typhoon recorded in the history of the Philippines, and the damage was estimated in $1.5 billion (2013 USD). During the aftermath, I boarded onto a military plane with destination to the airport of Tacloban managing to join US helicopter flights delivering relief aid, body rescue teams (land and water) and medical teams. The whole ordeal was not only one story of sheer horror but a story of beautiful human values of heroism and solidarity, and this sequence wants to honor all of those heroic and solidary Philipinnos and foreigners who went there to help despite the risk and the pain. In the beginning, the people were wandering about like zombies, without any water or food, desperate to help the wounded, or their beloved ones, Since they had no water food or shelter; they also didnt have time to mourn the dead or to search for their bodies; everything had turned into a matter of desperate survival. This extreme situation was followed by the looting of small stores and supermarkets, and since the situation was getting very dangerous, special forces were sent and a curfew was enforced. The bodies were found everywhere, many trapped into the debris and others in body bags or floating in the ocean. While delivering relief aid, some helicopters got assaulted , and the people at the most isolated areas fought violently to reach the goods. Soon after, many typhoon victims queued for days without shelter waiting for a flight to an evacuee center in Manila, becoming refugees in their own country.

About the photographeravier Sánchez-Monge Escardó is a Spanish photographer and philosopher born in 1965 in Madrid who has travelled and lived throughout different countries in an effort to document both humanitarian and environmental causes, specially dedicating himself in the past two years to the issue of climate change and to the man-made era of the anthropocene, among other issues of humanitarian nature, such as the Rohingya refugees.
His works have been published on El País, La Vanguardia, El Confidencial, El Día, El Diario de Navarra, and about climate change through the Spanish agency Agencia EFE. Regularly he publishes on Periodistas en Español, addressed to Spanish speaking audiences.
More recently Javier Sánchez-Monge Escardó has been awarded the IPA Spanish Edition title of Deeper Perspective Photographer of the Year (2017), Nominee by the LUCIE FOUNDATION for his works on climate change among four other international candidates to become the Deeper Perspective Photographer of the year 2017 and his works on Climate change were shown at the Dale Carnegie Hall in New York on October 2017.
Some of his prints have been exhibited at international photo Exhibits on behalf of the LUCIE FOUNDATION ( At the Mayors Summit , for the UNITED NATIONS CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE 2015 -Addressing Climate Change-) or also on behalf of the Lucie Foundation on the MOPLA (Month of Photography Los Angeles). As well on behalf of the ALFRED FRIED AWARDS at the UNESCO building in Paris, and throughout different countries, such as in 2016, when travelling as part of the “Best of the Show” travelling photo exhibit organized by the International Photography Awards (IPA).

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