Pinay DH captures Hong Kong life in dramatic black and white photos

Using a camera purchased with money she borrowed from her employer, overseas Filipino worker Xyza Cruz Bacani is slowly carving a niche in Hong Kong through her striking photographs of ordinary life there.

But Bacani is not a trained photographer employed by a big company; she is, in fact, a second-generation domestic helper serving the same woman who has employed her mother for 20 years.


An article on the New York Times said Bacani, who grew up in Nueva Vizcaya, uses her overtime pay to fund her hobby, buying lenses, cameras and film.

“For me, photography is a universal language,” the 27-year-old Filipina told the New York Times. “I’m a Filipino and I’m in a Chinese city, so it’s, like, the language of freedom and equality.”


As a street photographer, Bacani embodies a “lone wolf” persona — prowling the streets of Hong Kong in her spare time, snapping pictures, capturing everyday scenes in dramatic black and white.

“My photos are important for me, but I just want something that is close to my heart — something that can help another community,” she told New York Times.


But instead of leaving her work for photography, a vocation honed while she was studying college in the Philippines, she now aims to marry the two.

That something is a project currently in the works, which would document the abuses suffered by fellow foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong.

“I can relate to their stories. Our job description is the same. It just happens that I’m luckier than them,” Bacani said. —Rie Takumi/KBK/KG, GMA News

Photos by Xyza Cruz Bacani