Bacani, Xyza

Filipino, b. 1987

BiographyIn We Are Like Air (2013–2018), Xyza Cruz Bacani chronicles the migration and domestic labor experience of her mother, Georgia. This visual story spans two countries, three generations, and two families. Cruz Bacani expresses a wish for migrant laborers and domestic helpers to be regarded by their employers as family, as well as for laborers to remain in connected relationships with their true families. Georgia features as the emotional center of many of the 150 black-and-white photographs in the series. As the story’s timeline extends, Cruz Bacani opens the viewpoint and shows wider conditions for local domestic helpers, many of whom experience exploitative, unscrupulous employers. She wants viewers to see migrant workers, thus her title We Are Like Air refers to their invisibility yet omnipresence in society. Years before her opportunity to become a photographer full-time, young Cruz Bacani had moved to Hong Kong to work alongside her mother as a helper. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the Hong Kong Arts Centre; the Bronx Documentary Center, NY; and the Christine Park Gallery, NY; among others. She is a WMA Commission Grantee and a Pulitzer Center Grantee.