Nepali Mahouts

• Photographer
  Cristina Giuliana, Italy

I'd like to show how Occidental commonplaces sometimes are
completely wrong.
When people think about mahouths they use to see only mistreated
and exploited elephants without considering that beeing a mahout
sometimes is the only way to get a job and survive, especially in
countries like Nepal.
I followed mahouts in Nepal for weeks and I saw them speaking to
their animal, washing, feeding and working with it. Mahouts do love
their elephants and use to spend all the day with it without holidays.
I fell a strong relationship between elephants and their owner. I saw
elephants taking with their trunk owner's hand keeping him closer to
have cuddles.
People want to see only chains and hooks. Don't we use to bring out
our dogs with a leash or keep our cats closed in tiny flats? So I'm
wondering where the difference is.