{"id":3254,"date":"2014-07-03T17:29:33","date_gmt":"2014-07-03T17:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=3254"},"modified":"2014-07-03T17:29:33","modified_gmt":"2014-07-03T17:29:33","slug":"filipina-looks-after-people-and-takes-pictures-in-hong-kong-by-kerri-macdonald","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=3254","title":{"rendered":"Filipina looks after people and takes pictures in Hong Kong by Kerri MacDonald"},"content":{"rendered":"

A stream of images from Hong Kong caught Rick Rocamora\u2019s<\/a> 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<\/a><\/strong>, was fro\"Xyzam the Philippines \u2014 like Mr. Rocamora \u2014 intrigued him, though he was reluctant to contact her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought she was one of those children of rich Filipinos living in Hong Kong, and all she does is go out and make pictures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI \u00a0said, \u00a0\u2018God! \u00a0She\u2019s \u00a0\u00a0the \u00a0\u00a0modern \u00a0Vivian Maier.” <\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>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<\/a>. But not anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I discovered Vivian Maier, I stopped,\u201d she said, noting the similarity in their job descriptions. \u201cI want to be me. I want people to see my images and say, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s Xyza\u2019s photo.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She lives in a large apartment in an affluent neighborhood on Hong Kong Island, where she works for an aging Chinese-Australian woman \u2014 the same woman who gave Ms. Bacani\u2019s mother a job nearly 20 years ago. One of her tasks is taking care of her boss\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

But Miss Bacani\u2019s story is different from that of many foreign domestic workers, or \u201chelpers,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Bacani, now 27, grew up in Nueva Vizcaya, in the Philippines. Her mother\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Her passion for photography blossomed while she was in college in the Philippines. But cameras, her mother told her, were a luxury. She couldn\u2019t afford one until a few years after she\u2019d moved to Hong Kong, when she bought a Nikon D90 with money she borrowed from her boss. She fell in love with street photography.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just go down and I have subjects,\u201d she said. \u201cI have something to shoot.\u201d<\/p>\n

With camera in hand, the \u201cglorified nanny\u201d transforms into a \u201clone wolf\u201d or \u201cstray cat,\u201d prowling the street. When she\u2019s using her phone to shoot under-the-radar, she\u2019s a ninja, capturing scenes that emphasize light slicing through towering buildings before it hits the streets, shifting by the minute.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you see the light, you need to press the shutter,\u201d she said. \u201cOr else it\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

She photographs all over the city, from Mong Kok\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s streets are safer than many urban areas at night.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s alive,\u201d she said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t sleep at all. Everywhere you go, you can see people running around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her friendship with Mr. Rocamora has helped Ms. Bacani, who can\u2019t afford photo workshops \u2014 and who benefited from the confidence boost. \u201cIt\u2019s a very good feeling that somebody is interested in my works,\u201d she said, \u201cnot just my mother or my boss.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also eases her sense of isolation. Although she speaks Cantonese, Ms. Bacani adopts her lone wolf persona in the midst of Hong Kong\u2019s Chinese community, where she does not feel welcomed. Nor does she have many close friends within the city\u2019s Filipino community. So she uses her images to speak to people.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, photography is a universal language,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m a Filipino and I\u2019m in a Chinese city, so it\u2019s, like, the language of freedom and equality. Because with photography, there\u2019s no gender, there\u2019s no age, there\u2019s no social status, color or race. We speak one language. And nothing of those stereotypes exist.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very powerful, silent, wordless type of communication. An image can speak to different people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, she wants to return to the Philippines to shoot. \u201cMy photos are important for me,\u201d she said of her street photography, \u201cbut I just want something that is close to my heart \u2014 something that can help another community.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

For now, she hopes to begin a project in Hong Kong, where she<\/p>\n

will document the abuse of domestic workers \u2014 a subject that has been covered by countless photographers, including Mr. Rocamora<\/a> and Gratiane de Moustier<\/a>, whose photos were featured on Lens last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can relate to their stories,\u201d she said. \u201cOur job description is the same. It just happens that I\u2019m luckier than them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A stream of images from Hong Kong caught Rick Rocamora\u2019s 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 \u2014 like Mr. Rocamora \u2014 intrigued him, though he was reluctant to contact her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,37],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3254"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}