A Kind of You (2013) / Perttu Saksa

Beautifully shot. So creepy and beyond heartbreaking. Thank god this is a dying, and now legally punishable practice.

From an interview with the photographer:  

There has been a tradition in Indonesia of street performers teaching their pet monkeys tricks and dressing them in traditional masks. This custom has subsequently put down roots in the cities, where stressed-out monkeys, harnessed to help beggars, are dragged in chains from one owner to another. The monkeys walk clumsily, but are made to go through the streets ‘disguised’ in heads cut off Barbies and baby dolls. A couple of years ago, the Indonesian state tightened up the law and made macaque monkey species protected. There were no longer performances in the street, like before. I did a lot of groundwork with the aid of a local journalist before we found a few people known as “monkey masters” in the slums of Jakarta. They trained and rented out monkeys to beggars. I photographed the series over a few weeks in the autumn of 2012. Since the beginning of this year, the legislation has been made even stricter, and owning monkeys is now punishable by a prison sentence. 

A Kind of You (2013) / Perttu Saksa
(via Incredible Things )