Macaques in masks - an eerie sight

Horror often comes not from something unknown, but from something that we are all familiar with. It’s just that this “familiar” has been changed beyond recognition. It is this phenomenon that helps explain why Finnish photographer Perttu Sax's project, How You Are, evokes such strong emotions.

Saksa specializes in portraiture, but in 2012 he traveled to Indonesia and saw street monkeys there for the first time, forced to play different roles for the amusement of the crowd. Last fall, with the help of an Indonesian journalist, Saksa began to delve deeper into the identities of the so-called "owners" of these poor animals.

(Total 17 photos)

1. Then Saksa photographed these macaques "in the image" that struck him the most.

2. Often dressed in baby clothes and puppet masks, these monkeys were quite a creepy sight.

3. Tied up with chains and peeking out from behind their masks, these animals best represent man's greatest fear: being enslaved and controlled.

4. Looking at these photos, however, you can feel not only fear, but also other feelings. For example, anger.

5. How, ask yourself, can such an outrage happen in front of everyone?

6. "It's a matter of empathy," says the photographer himself.

7. "This is an indictment of our own indifference to the suffering of others."

8. In early 2013, the Indonesian authorities finally took action: now the possession of a monkey is punishable by a prison term.

9. More recently, the governor of Jakarta announced a cash reward for monkey owners if they release their pets into the wild.

10. Let's hope that Sachs' photographs will soon become a kind of outdated evidence of society's mistakes.

11. In the meantime, these are powerful and strangely aesthetic shots that remind us of the harsh reality.

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