[ad_1]
Culture
Highlight
Family members and lawyers repeatedly begged the jail guards to remove Reina’s handcuffs if only for a few minutes so that they could hold Baby River one last time. They repeatedly refused
JEROME B. GOMEZ | Oct 20, 2020
There may be many images that came out of the story of Reina Mae Nasino and Baby River, but this image by Reuters photographer Eloisa López could well be her defining image.
No crying mother reaches the frame, nor any bloodstain, but there is no doubt that the photo conveys a kind of repressed anguish, a silent mourning: this pair of handcuffed wrists, hands covered in white gloves holding a white daisy. Each element is a symbol, including the black background. The image is almost a direct reaction to the online anti-dramaserye camp, complaining about how the media had turned coverage of the mother-son story into a soap opera.
The photograph first appeared as a banner for the Reuters feature at Baby River’s funeral.
Reina Mae, who works with the urban poor group Kadamay, was arrested in November last year for illegal possession of firearms. She and two other people denied the charges and said the ammunition was set. The baby was separated from her mother in August while Reina Mae awaited her trial in jail. The boy died this month of pneumonia.
López was following the story the day before he was assigned to cover the funeral at the Manila North Cemetery. We asked him about the image and what it was like to be in the center of it all.
ANCX: What do you remember from that moment and the situation that led to this photograph?
ELOISA LOPEZ: The Nasino family stood in front of baby River’s coffin for hours, saying their last words and farewell to baby River, and expressing their support for Reina, who only had a few hours to attend the funeral.
It was already after 3 p.m. when the Nasino family asked the funeral workers to begin the burial. The apartment-style grave where Baby River’s coffin would be placed was steps away from where they were standing, so I immediately moved to his side, anticipating that the family would be standing in front.
Reina was initially positioned further away, but her family requested that she be allowed closer. She was standing in front of the grave when a relative handed her the white flower to offer to baby River. He held it for a while and I took the opportunity to photograph it as many times as I could, concentrating on Reina’s handcuffed and the flower.
ANCX: What was going through your mind when you recorded this one?
EL: From the beginning of the ceremony, relatives and lawyers repeatedly begged the jail guards to remove Reina’s handcuffs, even for a few minutes so that they could hold Baby River for the last time. They repeatedly refused. When I realized that they were not giving him this opportunity, I knew that I had to highlight that in my photographs.
When I saw Reina holding the flower in handcuffs, I knew that this was the moment. You don’t see any of the chaos of that day but it had all the elements that portray its history. They are symbols that we are all especially familiar with at this time: personal protective equipment, gloves, handcuffs and a flower. It doesn’t show much more, but I think it shows your pain. It reveals that, at the end of the day, Reina is like any mother hoping to give her baby a proper goodbye.
ANCX: When you saw it as a photo, did you see it differently from the rest of the ones you took that day?
Yes. It was the first photograph I submitted. Usually I would edit and caption my images as a set before archiving them, but I knew this was a little different from the rest of my photos from that day.
ANCX: How was that day for you?
Distressing. I’m not a mother myself, but I know what it’s like to lose a loved one. I also learned that same day that Reina is almost my age. He is 23 years old and I am only a year older. I can’t imagine having so much pain at such a young age.
