Bernice is a Filipino photographer curious about people, animals, and the places they share, in cities and nature. Through photography, she tries to understand how systemic forces and environmental crises shape the lives of all living things.

She came to photography through an unexpected route. Growing up as a daughter of overseas Filipino workers, she spent summers at her grandmother's house in Bulacan with no cable TV, no internet, just stacks of black-and-white photo albums. Poring over images of her mother as a child, she realized for the first time that photographs could add a whole dimension to someone she thought she already knew. That stayed with her through a design career and years of shooting on her own time, until layoffs gave her the space to pursue documentary work more seriously. She started with stories of children, Indigenous communities, and women in poverty, and has since been finding her way toward the environment and the animal world.

Her images have appeared in local and international publications including Der Spiegel, the South China Morning Post, the Christian Science Monitor, and ABS-CBN News. Her NGO clients include UNICEF Philippines, Oxfam Philippines, DENR-SMARTSeas, and Start Network. Today she splits her time between photography assignments, long-term documentary projects, and her work as an office coordinator at Asia for Animals Coalition.

For assignments/inquiries, feel free to email her at hello@bernicebeltran.com/berniceonduty@gmail.com.