Manila, Philippines — Last December 4, renowned photographer Karling Hamill led the AsiaTV crew’s first trip around the streets of Hong Kong, in a photoshoot that featured shared experiences of Global South Identity on the ground. From street food, religious icons, to family gatherings, the values of community-building amidst rapid urbanization is truly a reality shared across the regions of Asia and Africa.
The Global South Identity is a term that broadly covers the identity of countries in the regions of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia (without Israel, Japan, and South Korea), and Oceania (without Australia and New Zealand), according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
The photo shoot of the lookbook was meant to be a woman-to-woman collaboration between AsiaTV founder and film producer Regine Guevara and female photographer Karling Hamill.
AsiaTV is a video production company dedicated to push the causes of United Nations, as well as other causes and advocacies such as tourism and global south identity, led by Guevara. The organization’s constant collaborator is artist Xander Pratt. 
With work published in Vogue Hong Kong, SCMP, Frankie Magazine, and Tatler Hong Kong, Hamill is a professional photographer, who is exceptionally skilled in the use of natural light — making her name her photography company “So Lightly.” The story behind her self-made business organization hits home to many, as she shared her journey out of a dark phase in life having survived an illness, among others, with now a successful career and motherhood. She has since taken beautiful photos while traveling almost everywhere, having lived as in Australia, London and Singapore. The 3 certainly share interesting similarities across their destinations and stories of life. 

Hong Kong island is but a perfect example of how modernization and Asian heritage merge, as a melting pot of various cultures around the world – an experience quite familiar to Pratt and Guevara who just flew in from the Philippines, Malaysia, Brazil and Russia. Prior to this, the two met in the cosmopolitan city of Marrakesh in the Kingdom of Morocco, and were off to a next residency in the former’s hometown in Australia. 

Xander Pratt as captured by Karling Hamill
Xander Pratt as captured by Karling Hamill

It was through the uniting force of Women of Hong Kong, an organization that provides a network of like-minded ladies, did Hamill and Guevara meet. Both Asian women are leaders in their own right, both having worked with United Nations as social workers and journalists.

Pratt, who was recently honored as the first Afro-Asia sultan for his artistry by the Manubu tribe in the Philippines, is their influential ally. He founded the global tour dubbed as “Who Are You.” The self-empowerment tour is inspired by his own mother, a single mom and immigrant, and feminist writer behind Shifting Sands book, which is about Christian family life.  Having traveled the world “to deliver a message of art as a vessel of personal and collective freedom and love as the inspiration of life,” Xander serves as a life coach for young people and the young at heart around the world through his “Who Are You” workshop events, through his art pieces such as the collaborative work behind the first ever Afro-Asian Lookbook. 

Together, the AsiaTV crew exchanged unique views and visions on feminine power, through the power of no less than a woman’s camera, and even her pen. 

This is exactly what WOHK is all about, to challenge women to reach their highest potentials by providing opportunities for them to collaborate, learn from each other’s mistakes and experiences, and most of all, to humanize businesses the way they know best, locally and abroad.