Story highlights Filipino domestic worker captures Hong Kong's street scenes with black and white photographs

Xyza Cruz Bacani's work was recognized by a well-known documentary photographer

Bacani recently hosted her second solo photography exhibition

Hong Kong (CNN) Xyza Cruz Bacani has lived in Hong Kong for nine years and still doesn't feel like she belongs. But that changes every time she reaches for her camera.

Bacani, 27, is a migrant domestic worker or "helper" who moonlights as a photographer. She spends six days a week cooking, cleaning and babysitting for an affluent Chinese family. On her day off, Bacani wanders around the city capturing black and white scenes.

"When I'm wearing my camera I'm not a helper anymore, I'm an ordinary girl." Bacani says.

"It's a way of protection because when you're a helper here, there is a kind of stereotyping that they do," referring to Hong Kongers.

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Lately, Bacani has been documenting a group of women at Bethune House Migrant Women's Refuge, a shelter for abused migrant workers.

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