Behind The Pages: The Body Remembers, The Making of Vogue Philippines’ Art and Wellness Issue

Collaborators behind Vogue Philippines’ May 2026 Issue share the energies, reflections, and moments that shaped the stories behind the pages.

The May issue began with a question many of us have been carrying: how do we remain grounded while the world around us feels increasingly uncertain? In this issue, the body serves as both witness and guide, a technology that remembers, transforms, and carries us through periods of change.

This month explored the chakra system as an ancient technology of awareness, tracing the energetic centers that shape how we move through emotions, identity, intuition, and connection. These themes also found their way into the atmosphere of the shoots, in the energy shared between collaborators, in the textures and objects placed carefully before the camera, and in the emotional honesty each subject brought into the frame.

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Our May 2026 cover star, Laufey, highlighted her relationship with voice and expression. Associated with the throat chakra, the center connected to communication, truth, and creative expression, her presence within the issue became a reflection of how the voice can serve as both personal release and collective connection. Through music, Laufey transforms emotion into something shared, creating space for vulnerability and intimacy to move between herself and her audience.

On Grounding

For the chapter openers that anchored the issue, crystals and stones became visual touchpoints, objects that carried both symbolism and presence. Sourced from Clear Space Manila, the stones threaded through the issue as markers of grounding, transformation, and intention. 

I remember vividly the time we reached out to the founder, Jen, for the stones and how generously she immediately offered her crystals to the team. When they arrived in the studio, they came in multiple storage boxes, each one carefully organized and categorized according to the chakras. Opening them felt like entering an archive of energies, textures, and stories.

For Jen, the connection to crystals began during a deeply personal transition. “Motherhood opens you to so many beginnings and endings all at once,” she shares. What started as a curiosity gradually unfolded into years of studying minerals, energy work, sourcing, and craftsmanship. More than objects of beauty, the stones became vessels for memory, healing, and meaning.

Among her favorites is Carnelian, a warm orange stone associated with the sacral chakra and often connected to creativity, vitality, and identity. “I think in life, especially as women, it’s so important not to lose your sense of self while moving through different roles and versions of yourself,” she says. Around her personal studio, the energy is calm but alive, shaped by the crystals, and the stories, labor, and human connection behind each one.

Jen also hopes people understand that crystals exist beyond the language of spirituality alone. “I think many people assume crystals exist only within spirituality, but there is also so much history, geology, craftsmanship, travel, and human connection behind this work,” she says. “Sourcing responsibly, meeting miners and lapidaries, understanding formations, and learning where these minerals come from are all deeply important to me.” Aside from energy, every stone truly carries its own journey.

On Momentum and Reinvention

The journey of emerging actress Julia Saubier for her first Vogue Philippines shoot was quite interesting. The shoot unfolded during a brief return to Manila, compressed into a single Sunday surrounded by a team working entirely on collective momentum. Having flown in from Boracay without so much as a coffee, Julia jokes that she survived the day purely on the energy of everyone around her. “The team was pure vibes and very uplifting,” she recalls. The atmosphere on set became its own kind of fuel, shaping the openness and ease visible throughout the images of photographer Borgy Angeles.

The owner of the house’s family dog, Gomez, complete with impossibly beautiful lashes, wandered around set and somehow immediately set the tone for the day. I also remember how instinctively Julia responded to even the most playful prompts on set. At one point, we told her to “act like you’re a sunflower bathing in a field of butterflies,” and without hesitation, she immediately transformed the energy of the frame. There was something incredibly open and intuitive about the way she moved,never overthought, just fully willing to lean into the moment. Julia also laughed about constantly being reminded to relax the tension in her face throughout the day, something she hadn’t even realized she was holding onto. 

Beneath that humor was a deeper reflection on growth and self-definition. When I asked what’s one thing she hoped audiences would take away from her story, her answer felt both candid and self-assured. “Pursue what you love and continue to refine what that looks like in practice,” she says. “And don’t ever let a man tell you what you can and cannot achieve as a mother. Sorry that was two.”

Looking back on the shoot, what stayed with the team most was how naturally Julia moved through it all, responding less like someone performing for the camera and more like someone fully present within the moment.

On Time and Texture

Elsewhere in the issue, the body presented itself as something archival, a surface that records moments and experiences rather than conceals it.

In “Colors of Time,” German-Ukrainian photographer Alina Gross approached beauty as something that deepens through experience. Through intimate close-ups and textured imagery, skin transformed into landscape, evidence of accumulation and becoming.

“The concept came from an interest in how beauty changes rather than fades,” Gross explains. Flowers, a recurring presence in her work, accompanied the shoot as visual companions. There were moments, she says, where “skin, light, and the organic structure of the flowers” aligned naturally, creating images that felt less staged than quietly observed. 

Rather than presenting beauty as something distant or perfected, Gross hopes the work creates a sense of closeness, something viewers can recognize within themselves. “If the work can shift the way we look at skin, age, or imperfection, even slightly, then it has done what it needed to do,” she reflects.

On Trust and Transformation

Emotional honesty shifted the energy of the “Rebel Heart” editorial. Photographed by Korean American fashion and fine art photographer Samantha Spence and featuring Geena Rocero, the story was built around themes of rebellion and transformation, moving fluidly between strength and vulnerability while allowing Geena’s many dimensions to coexist within the frame.

“Visually, the story was translated by exploring multiple facets of her character, from a warrior-like presence that embodied resilience and power to softer, more feminine moments that conveyed vulnerability and grace,” Spence explains. “The intention was not to place one expression above the other, but to highlight the strength within both.”

Spence describes the shoot not as a singular vision imposed onto a subject, but as an evolving collaboration grounded in trust. “It felt less like individuals trying to dominate the creative process and more like a collective effort to tell Geena’s story with honesty, care, and intention,” she says. 

For Spence, the goal of image-making has never been perfection or universal approval. What matters most is whether the work leaves something behind in the viewer. “I believe photography should move people in some way,” she reflects, “even if that response is complicated or divisive.”

Together, these stories formed the emotional landscape of the Art and Wellness issue. Rather than offering a singular interpretation of spirituality or transformation, they became a collective exploration of what it means to remain present within ourselves while the world continues shifting around us.

Perhaps that is the answer the May issue arrives at. In moments of uncertainty, we do not find grounding by escaping ourselves, but by returning more fully to the body, to sensation, intuition, vulnerability, and presence. Every story this month became an act of listening to energy, emotion, and one another. And in that process, the body became a compass.