About the Project: In Limbo

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In Limbo is a visual qualitative research study of Filipina migrant workers in Hong Kong.  A  three-year research study and visual exploration where I am  primarily using photography as a methodology. A visual ethnography focusing on migrant women’s physical and cultural displacement and their abstract sense of home through open-discussion, immersion, and analysis of their spatial empowerment through cultural and physical appropriation. 

The title alludes to the state of domestic helpers who have cases filed against them or against their employers. These said migrant workers are not allowed to find another employer or any form of work and are not allowed to go back to the Philippines leaving them in a state of uncertainty with no means of income until the case is settled.

In Limbo also points to displacement of these migrant workers who left home for far too long that the idea of home becomes increasingly abstract. 

It pertains to the transient state of the Filipina Migrant Workers in Hong Kong who, even after a decades of servitude are still viewed upon as second class citizens and whose stay in Hong Kong is still dependent on their service contract.

The photographs is hoping to show the migrants not just as workers but as women, mothers, sisters, etc as they navigate the political, social, and personal landscapes of their lives in HK.

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In Limbo was first exhibited at the Jockey Culture Club, Hong Kong last May 2012.Fine Art Photographs were printed on Hahnemühle archival paper by Fine Art Printer Danny Chau.