So the name of your brand is Kakáslok. I read somewhere that that translates to "pile of shit" in Tagalog?



ERICKA DEL ROSARIO: (Laughs) Yes, but there’s a long story behind it. I was born in the projects in the Philippines. The neighborhoods are divided by projects, and I lived in Project 6, which is one of the most corrupt, impoverished areas. But we had this old lady babysitter that we called our “ima,” which means grandma in Tagalog, and she would watch all the kids in my village while our parents were at work. She gave us all weird nicknames. Mine was “Kakáslok,” which is like “little shit” 'cause I guess I never listened and was always the rebel. I left the Philippines when I was 7, but that name always stuck with me.

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What was your move to the states like?

I moved to Seattle, Washington. I went to middle school and high school in the States. I never got the best grades, I was never good at sports, none of that. In middle school I got into photography after my stepdad gave me this old film camera. I started taking pictures of flowers and I thought I was the best photographer in the world. I realized how important it was to document everything in life: document the things that were pretty, document the things that were ugly. In high school I started my own little photo business. I shot photos of the seniors in my school for their senior photos. I took pictures at the football games. And that’s what I was known for in high school, and that’s what I wanted to do moving on.

How did your family react to your photography?



My family is all Filipino; they’re all really strict. They were really mad at me cause I was focusing on photography and not nursing, which is what everyone in my family does. It’s like either you’re a nurse or a doctor or a dentist. And I just didn’t have any interest in doing that, and I think that’s the reason my family sent me to spend a summer with my uncle which ended up changing my life.