Hard Times,
Yogyakarta, 2013-14

In Yogya I see many people who have a very hard life. Some try to work, but scrape a bare living, some are begging and a few have physical and mental handicaps. I photograph these people for two reasons. I hope that my photographs will encourage people, especially politicians with multiple houses and luxury cars, to make an effort to help these disadvantaged people, and as a record of social history. I feel it important that in years to come Indonesians understand the life that their ancestors went through. Life must be very hard if you live in a state with no social security benefits, are old and do not have family to support you.

When I saw this woman with a wheelbarrow full of bags, I first thought that she must be mad 'bag lady'. She wasn't. She was friendly and pleasant. She survived by collecting rubbish and selling it. At night she slept under that hedge, which surrounds the alun-alun. When it rained she pulled a sheet of plastic over herself.