Canadian artist Mateo Guez chose to use his phone, as it was “an extension of his body to frame his direct experience of the world.” In his words, “You can do beautiful stuff with many different devices and many different tools. You just have to choose the appropriate one. For me, for how I feel connected and for my way of working, I use cellphone.” His photography body of work focus on the people who live, work and play in Smokey Mountain, a large squatter community in the Philippines. The photographs were an offshoot of a film he was making called ‘Off World’
Guez eloquently captures the lives of children who live, work and play in Smokey Mountain, one of the world’s worst slums, where entire families scavenge to survive. Smokey Mountain is a mound of refuse outside of Manila, in the central Philippines, named after the methane-heavy mist hovering over it. Guez challenges our preconceptions of the camera by using a mobile phone as an extension of his body to frame his direct experience.
The photographs were an offshoot of a film he was making called ‘Off World’ from his production company, Theo Films, which “is a tribute to the tenacity of human spirit and a document of the singular beauty that can be found in even the most chaotic of circumstances and amidst the most devastating suffering – If one can only manage view it from just the right angle.â€