Prize-Winning Filipino Photographer Launches Book in HK

Consul General in Hong Kong Antonio A. Morales (third from right) takes part in the ribbon cutting ceremony of Filipino street and documentary photographer Xyza Cruz Bacani’s (fourth from right) book launch and exhibit entitled “We Are Like Air” at the Hong Kong Arts Centre on 30 November 2018. Also in the photo are (from left) Xyza’s parents Mr. Villamor and Mrs. Georgia Bacani, her former employer Mrs. Kathryn Louey, exhibit curator Melissa Lee, and Ms. Yolanda Ng of the Wan Chai District Council. (Hong Kong PCG photo)

HONG KONG 14 December 2018 – An award-winning Hong Kong-based Filipino documentary photographer launched her first book at the opening of her new solo exhibition at the Hong Kong Arts Centre in the city’s Central District on 30 November 2018.

Filipina photographer Xyza Cruz Bacani’s book, “We Are Like Air,” takes a closer look at the often out-of-sight, out-of-mind personal experiences of household workers. This is also the title of the exhibit.

During the launching of the book and the exhibit, Consul General Antonio A. Morales of the Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong praised Ms. Bacani’s talent and dedication to bring migrant workers’ issues, especially on household service workers to the mainstream consciousness.

The title refers to how, in the photographer’s own words, migrant domestic workers are often treated like air—invisible but essential —in cities such as Hong Kong, Singapore or Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Ms. Bacani dedicated her first book, which depicts the lives of household service workers in Hong Kong, to her parents, Mrs. Georgia and Mr. Villamor Bacani, and her former employer, Mrs. Kathryn Louey. Years before her meteoric rise to fame as a photographer, Ms. Bacani followed her mother at age 19 in 2006 to work in Hong Kong where she gained awareness of migrant workers’ issues.

The Consulate General has witnessed the Filipina photographer’s growing following, especially among photography enthusiasts, and played host to her first-ever solo exhibit in Hong Kong held in 2014. The exhibit, titled “Xyza in Focus,” was organized then in partnership with Pintura Circle.

Ms. Bacani, who started photography while working as a migrant worker herself in Hong Kong for almost a decade, caught the attention of the photography world and international media including New York Times, International Herald Tribune, and Vogue Italia in 2014 for the rawness, beauty, and stillness of the moments she captured in a place busy and crowded as Hong Kong.

She has been the recipient of prestigious grants and awards, like the Magnum Foundation Human Rights scholarship at New York University in 2015, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting 2016, WMA Commission 2017, and part of Open Society Foundations Moving Walls 24.

The photographer was also featured as BBC’s 100 Women of the World in 2015, and 30 Under 30 Women Photographers 2016, and Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2016. To add to her growing list of laurels, she is also an ambassador for the brand Fujifilm.

“We Are Like Air: A Solo Exhibit of Xyza Cruz Bacani” will run from 01 to 20 December 2018 at the Experimental Gallery of the Hong Kong Arts Centre. The event was co-presented by WMA Foundation and Hong Kong Arts Centre while Ms. Bacani’s book “We Are Like Air” was published by We Press Company Limited. END

Filipino street and documentary photographer Xyza Cruz Bacani addresses the audience at formal remarks at the launch and exhibit of her first book entitled “We Are Like Air” at the Hong Kong Arts Centre on 30 November 2018. (Hong Kong PCG photo)

Xyza Cruz Bacani (right) and exhibit curator Melissa Lee (left) show Consul General Antonio A. Morales (center) around the exhibition gallery featuring works from Xyza’s first book entitled, “We Are Like Air,” at the Hong Kong Arts Centre on 30 November 2018. (Hong Kong PCG photo)

For more information, visit www.hongkongpcg.dfa.gov.ph or https://www.facebook.com/PHLinHK/.