Finnish photographer Perttu Saksa has photographed many animals, both alive and taxidermy. “I am interested in how we look at animals and all kinds of visible ‘failures’ in our relationship with the environment. I found this phenomena in Asia while I did some background research for my projects and saw it as an absurd but interesting thing…” Saksa told PDN via email while discussing his series of photographs of monkeys wearing human masks. Traditionally, street performers in Indonesia included monkeys wearing masks in their performances, teaching them tricks which often stressed and hurt them. The laws were tightened a few years ago, but “monkey masters” still exist in the slums of Jakarta according to Saksa. They are now just a little harder to find. The photographs show “monkeys that are chained by street beggars in order to ask money from bystanders. I photographed them in their setting, by the streets as well as with portable studio backgrounds. Basically, I work with documentary, although I take it in somewhere between reality and fiction.”