Set to be released at the Manila International Book Fest, “Chasing Spirit—Field Dispatches and Stories in Monochrome Mobile Photographs” by Karl R. De Mesa is one of the books under the slate of UST Publishing House for September 2026.
De Mesa’s book collects longreads features and photo essays previously published in “CNN Philippines Life,” Likhaan Journal,” “Star and Crescent UK,” “Mantle Magazine,” and “The Fight Site” among others. However, the essays in the book are longer and more true to their original spirit, rather than as they’ve appeared in an abridged version on those publications.
The essays bear the same themes that have defined De Mesa’s nonfiction works, in books like “Calling Out the Destruction,” “Report from the Abyss,” and “Radiant Void.” They’re informed by the same freewheeling gonzo tone and style, this time powered by both images and words.
Fighters and land defenders. Riverboat men and refugees. Get on the road and chase the spirit of moment. From the dangerous life of the infamous eco-enforcer the Chainsaw Man of Palawan, to documenting the brutal art of lethwei or Burmese bareknuckle fighting in Myanmar, this book isn’t your ordinary field journal or ASEAN travel photography collection.
All these field dispatches and photo essays in monochrome are also shot wholly through mobile phones. This book collects the published photo essays and portraits that have defined De Mesa’s photojournalism. The words and images are his attempt to chase down the poetry of both story and moment through image. To document their essence sans intermediary and convey them to others as he saw them, unadorned. Hence, with only minor edits in post.
Bobby Chan, land defender and activist lawyer, says of the book: “The magic of black and white is only bested by the stories told by the photos aptly depicted in this book. It’s title not only leaves you quite taken, it quietly discloses what is divine in them.”
