XYZA CRUZ BACANI

Xyza Cruz Bacani was living in Hong Kong and working as a domestic helper when, in 2009, she asked her employer to buy her a camera. On her one day off a week, Bacani began taking high-contrast, black-and-white photos and posting them to Facebook, where they caught the eye of professional photographers and, eventually, the editors of the New York Times. In 2014, she was profiled for the first time on the newspaper’s photography-focused Lens blog while still working as a cleaner and nanny.

That article changed her life. The following year, Bacani was awarded a Human Rights Fellowship by photography agency Magnum and travelled to the US to study at New York University’s Tisch School for the Arts. She has since had exhibitions at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, the Bangkok Arts and Culture Centre and the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum in Missouri, among others, all of them shining a light on issues of labour, migration and human rights.

Bacani published her first photo book, We Are Like Air, late last year. “It took us two years to complete the project,” she says. “When I finally saw the book last November, it was cathartic.” The title refers to the way Bacani believes migrant workers are often treated in Hong Kong—like air, migrant workers are “invisible but important.” And Bacani isn’t stopping there. Publisher WE Press is already working on Bacani’s second book and, this May, Christine Park Gallery in New York will host a solo exhibition of Bacani’s photographs.