A clothes washer sits outside her makeshift home under the Katipunan flyover, the day’s laundry hanging overhead, providing a messy albeit colorful landscape.

In Avenida, a street child finds rest in a corner, with a page from the daily paper as her mat: the headline says, ironically, “Maging maligaya kahit wala ka mang pera” (Be happy even without money).

After the demolition of a shanty community in Navotas, a mother and her two children recover a piece of wood—a door, perhaps, or a partition from a dismantled home?—and sit down for dinner.

Captured at their rawest by documentary photographers and photojournalists Jes Aznar, Nana Buxani, Richard de Guzman, Angie de Silva, Jimmy Domingo, Raffy Lerma, Luis Liwanag, Akira Liwanag, Gil Nartea, Paolo Picones, Jose Enrique Soriano, Jake Versoza, VJ Villafranca, Sonny Yabao, and Rem Zamora, these scenes are part of the photo exhibit “Kamusta Na? Ayos Pa Ba?” that ran for two weeks before the May 14 elections.

Printed on tarpaulin sheets of 4×4 feet and larger and displayed in Cubao, Divisoria, Roxas Boulevard, and other places with heavy traffic, the pictures are the Filipino people’s answer to the question, “Kamusta na?”

The administration has changed hands over the years—new people were introduced, promising change; some old ones came back, but has the Filipinos’ plight improved?

What, indeed, is the true state of the nation? There is massive poverty. There is inequality between the rich and poor. Most of us have little or no access to basic social services such as health care and education. A number of us still live in fear of political persecution and extra-judicial violence.

“Kamusta Na?” gives you a glimpse of the Filipino’s everyday life in photos.

Click here to view gallery.