In 2009, I initiated a series of photographs entitled  "CHICKEN HANDS". These are photographs representing  Filipina housekeepers, working in France  for many years, with the only working tool: their hands. These, deformed by manual work,  let us imagine  chicken feet.   

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Their faces are also inscribed with the marks left by  their harsh living conditions, in a country from which they  did not even know the language and the customs, when they arrived. We can also read there the suffering of having left  behind them, their children, to provide for their education  and offer them a greater chance of success, in  existence. I tried to make their silence speak, their  fatigue, their loneliness, through the expression sadly  lived with their hands.  

 

Many of them obtained the regularization of their stay in France only after many years and were  harassed for fear of being arrested by the police and  returned to the Philippines.  this emigration is due to the many problems  political and social issues of my country which does not succeed in  to go out.  these women show their courage of the arduousness that they cross by carrying out hard works and particularly the suffering of their hands!!

 

Black and white photographs  115cm x 72cm