TECNO, Angelica Dass featured portraits of Solo Motherhood using the CAMON Slim 5G

TECNO and Angélica Dass feature solo motherhood as part of their "100 Portraits of Becoming" campaign.

Angélica Dass, TECNO 100 Portraits of Becoming

Challenging stories of solo parenting

TECNO and artist Angélica Dass have released the Philippine gallery of "100 Portraits of Becoming,  a documentary portrait project. The 20 portraits and accompanying stories are now available on TECNO's global story archive.

Angelica Dass shoots portraits using TECNO CAMON Slim 5G

The two-year project will span five countries and use TECNO's Universal Tone imaging technology. The Philippines is its second chapter, after Kenya in July 2026. According to the project's description, the remaining countries are Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Brazil.

Portraits of 20 people related to solo motherhood

For the Philippine chapter, Dass photographed 20 people in Manila whose lives relate to solo motherhood in different ways. The organizers said the theme is meant to show that a person's life involves many roles and relationships, and should not be reduced to a single label such as "solo mom."

The organizers cited publicly available data in explaining the theme. The Philippines is estimated to have 14 to 15 million solo parents, about 95% of them women. An estimated 2.19 million Filipinos worked overseas in 2024, and women made up 57.2% of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).

All portraits were shot on the TECNO CAMON Slim 5G. TECNO linked the chapter to the phone's "Make It Lighter" concept, which it describes as making expressive photography more accessible.

The participants include working solo mothers, adults raised by solo mothers, multi-generation families, OFW caregivers, and media and community advocates who work with women and families. 

The organizers said conversations with them covered how motherhood intersects with career ambition, how adult children view growing up in solo-parent households, and what support and personal approaches help families manage daily life.

Portrait of Ely Haig

Three participants were profiled:

Ely Haig is an advertising professional, breadwinner, and competitive amateur padel player. She became a mother as her career was taking off and initially stepped back from opportunities to care for her family. She later found what the release calls diskarte, a Filipino term for resourcefulness, in making room for her career, her daughter, side projects, and padel.

Being a good mother shouldn't mean leaving yourself behind," said Ely. "I want people to see more than a solo mom. A mother, yes, but also a creative, a career woman, an athlete, still becoming.

Twinkle Dimayuga Zamora raised two children as a solo mother and later founded MAMA, Mothers Advocating through Ministry and Action, an initiative that supports solo mothers and their children.

Portrait of Twinkle Dimayuga

The release describes her approach as asking for help, communicating openly, and building a support network. "Sometimes the strongest thing a mother can do is say, 'I need help," she said.

Portrait of Eunice Angeles

Eunice N. Angeles is a fourth-year nursing student raised by a solo mother who later worked as an OFW in Qatar. She said she watched her mother seek out opportunities and make difficult choices for their future. 

I want people to see what I grew up with: confidence, determination and the courage to find my own way.

The portraits were taken at places tied to each participant's daily life, such as workplaces, family homes and community spaces. The organizers said this was meant to show work, ambition, relationships, humour and routine alongside family roles.

Dass said the project changed how she viewed the subject.

What stayed with me was the realization that 'solo motherhood' is only one part of a person's identity. Through the stories shared with me and the moments we created during the portrait sessions, I was reminded that behind every label there is a person with their own ambitions, relationships, choices, and dreams. No single label can tell us everything about who someone is.

Universal Tone

TECNO said Universal Tone was developed to represent a wider range of human skin tones more accurately in mobile photography. The company said this supports the project's aim of presenting people as they are.

What moved us about the Philippines chapter was seeing how naturally motherhood, work, ambition and personal identity can coexist in the same life," said Jack Guo, General Manager of TECNO. "We hope technology can play a small part in helping people be seen more fully, and their stories better understood.

According to the organizers, the Kenyan chapter looked at how people move beyond inherited narratives about place and the future, while the Philippine chapter focuses on family, identity, and the roles people carry. 

More portraits from other countries are expected to be added to the archive.

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