It all started with a phone call from someone I met at our group  exhibit a year before, asking me if I would be willing to document Survivor Philippines, to be held on an island “Down south,” and would give no other details, as everything was paranoid-ically  confidential at that point. Having just woken up, it barely registered and all I could say was “I’d get back to you,” despite knowing that there would have to be at least a dozen “kids” who would beg to do it for free. Fully awake after a mean cup of black, the thoughts started coming in:  What, six weeks? Is there gonna be electricity, internet, celphone? Are they gonna make me live in a tent?

Are they going to make me f*cking dig?

Call it chutzpah or insanity or plain cockiness, I never even wondered if I could do the job, and do it well.  After getting an assurance of a nice air-conditioned room in a resort, I thought some more, eventually said Yes, got all the required medical stuff out of the way, packed my gear, and hopped on a plane.

Those six weeks, we tried to counter the bugs, “nik-nik,” they are called with layers upon layers of Off and citronella; then there was sunburn to worry about, and that means layers of sunblock. With the inevitable sweat on top of All That, don’t even try to imagine how sticky we all got. At times it’d get so darn hot we wondered not if but when those castaways, in their swimsuits (although they were given sunblock, too), would fry. At other times it’d rain or storm, and we’d be freezing there in raincoats. At one point it was so cold my fingers were getting numb I could barely click the shutter, and I was amazed how the castaways, underfed, under-dressed, could stand it.

Toward the end, the thought of going home almost depressed me. I so did not miss the jungle called Manila, but the biggest consolation was, No more nik-nik, dammit! Come to think of it, it’s been almost a year, and I still have that collection of souvenir on my arms and legs. Argh.

NOTE:  Re photos with Survivor logo/mark—post-prod was done by GMA team; the photos    are as they appeared on the exclusive fan website.

I was the official on-location photographer, studio shots were by a different team.