Xyza Cruz Bacani - Pinay Street Photographer

[rhythmworx]

http://www.xyzacruzbacani.com/photos/hong-kong/

Hong Kong (CNN)Xyza Cruz Bacani has lived in Hong Kong for nine years and still doesn't feel like she belongs. But that changes every time she reaches for her camera.

Bacani, 27, is a migrant domestic worker or "helper" who moonlights as a photographer. She spends six days a week cooking, cleaning and babysitting for an affluent

Chinese family. On her day off, Bacani wanders around the city capturing black and white scenes.

"When I'm wearing my camera I'm not a helper anymore, I'm an ordinary girl." Bacani says.

"It's a way of protection because when you're a helper here, there is a kind of stereotyping that they do," referring to Hong Kongers.

Lately, Bacani has been documenting a group of women at Bethune House Migrant Women's Refuge, a shelter for abused migrant workers.

"When I see the girls, I talk to them, I absorb all their emotions and I can't really believe that some people can do that to other human beings," Bacani says.

"We're the same. We're migrant workers. But I have a boss that treats me with respect and like a human being but these people — they were treated badly."

Bacani dropped out of college in the Philippines to work as a maid when she was only 19 so her younger brother and sister could stay at school.

She began shooting street scenes four years ago, after asking her boss for a loan to buy a Nikon DSLR camera.

Bacani's outsider status helps her to capture the city differently. She often peers at her subjects through a glass window or mirror and plays with lighting to create

dramatic, melancholic contrasts.

She posts new images on Facebook or her blog almost daily. That's how she caught the attention of Filipino documentary photographer Rick Rocamora who introduced

her to a community of mentors. Soon after, doors began to open -- first, a profile in The New York Times' Lens blog, then a Fuji Film sponsorship and an exhibition at

the Philippines Consulate General in Hong Kong.

In December, Bacani walked into the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong where her prints were hanging in 20 x 29 inch frames against a yellow, brick wall.

It's easy to see why Bacani gets mistaken for a tourist or just another 20-something visitor on the streets of Hong Kong. She sports a blue hoodie, braces and

side-swept bangs.

It's Bacani's second solo exhibit in a year but the first time she had seen her images enlarged. As she approached the back wall, Bacani couldn't quite hide the

thrill of seeing her photos displayed.

She pulled out her smartphone and snapped a picture of the gallery to send to her mom and dad.

Yesterday, Bacani’s life took a dramatic turn: she was announced as a recipient of the 2015 Human Rights Fellowship by the Magnum Foundation, a prestigious

scholarship that will give her the opportunity to study in an intensive, six-week-long program at New York University in NYC.

The experience will equip her in creating “effective visual stories with the aim of advancing Human Rights” in her home country.

========

A stream of images from Hong Kong caught Rick Rocamora’s attention on Facebook: black and white street scenes, with dramatic light and compositions that

ranged from kinetic to serene. The fact that the photographer, Xyza Cruz Bacani, was from the Philippines — like Mr. Rocamora — intrigued him, though he was reluctant to contact her.

“I thought she was one of those children of rich Filipinos living in Hong Kong, and all she does is go out and make pictures,” he said.

Actually, Ms. Bacani was one step removed from that world: She is a domestic helper for a well-off family, who wanders the streets of Hong Kong taking pictures

in her spare time.

“I said, ‘God! She’s the modern Vivian Maier,’” Mr. Rocamora recalled.

Ms. Bacani dismisses the comparison, even if she, too, used to sneak her face into her compositions every now and then, as Ms. Maier used to do. But not anymore.

“When I discovered Vivian Maier, I stopped,” she said, noting the similarity in their job descriptions. “I want to be me. I want people to see my images and say,

‘Oh, that’s Xyza’s photo.’”

She lives in a large apartment in an affluent neighborhood on Hong Kong Island, where she works for an aging Chinese-Australian woman — the same woman

who gave Ms. Bacani’s mother a job nearly 20 years ago. One of her tasks is taking care of her boss’s seven grandchildren, who visit almost daily. Recently,

the old woman had her repaint the entire apartment. On more than one occasion, she has asked Ms. Bacani to take portraits of the grandchildren.

But Ms. Bacani’s story is different from that of many foreign domestic workers, or “helpers,” in Hong Kong, where the abuse of maids is common. Her boss pays

her for overtime. The extra cash goes toward cameras, lenses and film. And that, in turn, makes her doubly different from most other nannies.

Ms. Bacani, 27, grew up in Nueva Vizcaya, in the Philippines. Her mother’s employer, who wanted another live-in helper to care for her as she got older, paid for

her to study nursing. Ms. Bacani joined her mother and her boss in Hong Kong nearly nine years ago.

Her passion for photography blossomed while she was in college in the Philippines. But cameras, her mother told her, were a luxury. She couldn’t afford one until

a few years after she’d moved to Hong Kong, when she bought a Nikon D90 with money she borrowed from her boss. She fell in love with street photography.

“I just go down and I have subjects,” she said. “I have something to shoot.”

With camera in hand, the “glorified nanny” transforms into a “lone wolf” or “stray cat,” prowling the street. When she’s using her phone to shoot under-the-radar,

she’s a ninja, capturing scenes that emphasize light slicing through towering buildings before it hits the streets, shifting by the minute.

“When you see the light, you need to press the shutter,” she said. “Or else it’s gone.”

She photographs all over the city, from Mong Kok’s suffocating streets to quieter outlying islands, using her mood to determine her destination. Often, she waits

for the sun to set, seeking to take advantage of Hong Kong’s nighttime light, which sometimes turns one body into three shadows of varying shapes and sizes.

Fortunately, for a young woman like Ms. Bacani, Hong Kong’s streets are safer than many urban areas at night.

“It’s alive,” she said. “It doesn’t sleep at all. Everywhere you go, you can see people running around.”

Her friendship with Mr. Rocamora has helped Ms. Bacani, who can’t afford photo workshops — and who benefited from the confidence boost. “It’s a very good

feeling that somebody is interested in my works,” she said, “not just my mother or my boss.”

It also eases her sense of isolation. Although she speaks Cantonese, Ms. Bacani adopts her lone wolf persona in the midst of Hong Kong’s Chinese community,

where she does not feel welcomed. Nor does she have many close friends within the city’s Filipino community.

So she uses her images to speak to people.

“For me, photography is a universal language,” she said. “I’m a Filipino and I’m in a Chinese city, so it’s, like, the language of freedom and equality. Because with

photography, there’s no gender, there’s no age, there’s no social status, color or race. We speak one language. And nothing of those stereotypes exist.

“It’s a very powerful, silent, wordless type of communication. An image can speak to different people.”

Still, she wants to return to the Philippines to shoot.

“My photos are important for me,” she said of her street photography, “but I just want something that is close to my heart — something that can help another community.”

Ms. Bacani will have a bit of a homecoming in May 2015, as Mr. Rocamora plans to include her in a show at the University of the Philippines.

For now, she hopes to begin a project in Hong Kong, where she will document the abuse of domestic workers — a subject that has been covered by countless

photographers, including Mr. Rocamora and Gratiane de Moustier, whose photos were featured on Lens last year.

But Ms. Bacani has an in.

“I can relate to their stories,” she said. “Our job description is the same. It just happens that I’m luckier than them.”

[fimgirl]

Thanks for sharing - excellent

[sunshine51]

^^^RW...I have been holding back on mentioning anything about this lady because it isn't

Thailand related. Now that it's here...

Every now and then, more then than now...someone comes along, outta the blue so to

speak, and blows peoples minds away. Such is the work of Xyza Cruz Bacani.

Who would expect a domestic helper (read maid) in Hong Kong to be this person

who has a gift of capturing stunning images? Not me I can tell you and I lived between

Hong Kong & Bangkok for many years. In fact, even though I started my professional

career in Bangkok it wasn't until I set up a company in Hong Kong in 1983 that my career

began to ascend. But this isn't about me & my been there & done that's, it's about a young

lady with a gift that many people simply do not have. And...to top it all off...she really enjoys

what she does!

I hope people will soon stop relating her to Vivian Maier, not that this is a bad thing, but

Ms. Bacani is and has a talent of her own. She's not a copy.

This lady is gonna go places I tell ya. She has had great luck at such a young age and has

been introduced to the right people by the right people. May the good luck remain with her.

Good on ya girl!

A few links about Ms. Xyza Cruz Bacani below;

http://xyzabacaniphotography.com/2014/12/30/2014-hong-kong-exhibition/

http://xyzabacaniphotography.com/

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/18/taking-care-of-people-and-pictures-in-hong-kong/?_r=0

http://www.xyzacruzbacani.com/about/

http://www.straitstimes.com/news/asia/east-asia/story/filipina-domestic-worker-hong-kong-gets-scholarship-new-york-university-20

[rhythmworx]

I've been reading quite a bit about her today and admiring her work SS.

The 3rd link you posted was where I got the 2nd part of the OP.

There was a short video of the her I tried to include but it's on CNN, heres the link,,,,video is on the right hand side.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/06/asia/domestic-worker-photographer/index.html

[Tywais]

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/xbacani

[sunshine51]

^^^ RW...Thanks for that link. I have already met the lady at the FCC in HK (I'm a long standing member).

She's cool! I hope she remains the way she is as she goes through the many phases of life in the biz

as it can ruin some people's mindset.

[Assurancetourix]

Thank you rhythmworx ;

[sunshine51]

Here's a nice Petapixel wrie up on Ms Bacani...

http://petapixel.com/2015/01/23/filipino-domestic-worker-earns-prestigious-magnum-fellowship-photography/