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Photo © Nacho Hernandez-All Rights Reserved

Nacho Hernandez is a Spanish freelance photographer currently based in Manila, Philippines. His forte is in documentary, editorial, travel photography and photography with a humanitarian focus, and has photographed on assignment for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and for magazines such as Courrier International and Asian Geographic. He has also worked on assignments for the World Bank and other NGOs.

A graduate from the Washington School of Photography, he studied with Magnum photographer David Alan Harvey, and has a degree in International Relations and Development.

I was drawn to Nacho's photo gallery titled Talking To God, in which he shares the degree of religiosity that permeates the Phillippines, where the majority of the population is Roman Catholic. It is estimated that over 80% of the almost 100 million Filipinos is Catholic, making it one of the largest catholic communities in the world.

Every Holy Week, some men from the city of San Fernando, in the Pampanga province, are crucified (and literally nailed) on Good Friday, while many of the local young men also wander around town flagellating themselves until their backs are raw and bleeding.

Not for the faint of heart, and extremely powerful.