Background
Bacani grew up in Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya, the eldest of three children. At the age of 18, she joined her mother in Hong Kong, working as a nanny for an affluent family in the Mid-Levels.
Bacani grew up in Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya, the eldest of three children. At the age of 18, she joined her mother in Hong Kong, working as a nanny for an affluent family in the Mid-Levels.
She studied nursing before leaving the Philippines to raise funds for the education of her siblings.
She is known for her black-and-white photographs of Hong Kong streetlife. Bacani started taking casual photographs after purchasing her first digital single-lens reflex camera, a Nikon D90, with a loan from her employer. Her interest in photography developed while she was still in college, but she was unable to afford her own camera at the time.
Bacani met her mentor, San Francisco-based photographer Rick Rocamora, on a Filipino photographers" group on Facebook.
Rocamora initially thought she was "just another rich kid who had nothing else to do but shoot" but was surprised when he learnt what Bacani did for a living. Among her various street photography images of Hong Kong society, she has covered the 2014 Hong Kong protests in Central and documented the lives of other domestic helpers at Bethune House Migrant Women"s Refuge in Jordan, Hong Kong.
Her work has drawn comparisons to those taken by American street photographer Vivian Maier, who had also worked as a nanny. However, Bacani dismisses the comparison, wanting her work to stand on its own.
November 2014 – Philippine Consulate General, Hong Kong
December 2014 – Foreign Correspondents" Club, Hong Kong.
