Disorder

DISORDER_2011-¬2016 (ongoing)_ is a documentary photo- reportage concerning abuse against people with psychosocial disabilities in Indonesia: Pasung is the Indonesian term for shackling. It can also refer to being kept in chains, stocks or locked in a room, cell, or pen. Initially banned in 1977, pasung is the widespread traditional response to mental disorders throughout Indonesia and it is an act of desperation. Caregivers resort to pasung when they cannot afford care, fear medications and addiction, want to avoid the stigma attached to a diagnosis of mental illness or most commonly, feel it is necessary to protect family, community, as well as the disturbed individual. Indonesia is estimated to have over 19 million people with psychosocial disabilities. Inadequate access to the medications and treatments commonly available throughout much of the world has devastating consequences. Many people don’t even know they can get better.

Andrea Star Reese is a photojournalist based in New York. Reese’s photographs from her ongoing series DISORDER used by Human Rights Watch and local NGO's garnered widespread media attention on the issue of shackling and confinement of people with mental health conditions in Indonesia. Her reportage helped to build national and international pressure resulting in systemic change on the ground. URBAN CAVE, a seven-year documentary on unsheltered persons living underground in New York City resulted in a 2015 photo book published by FotoEvidence with text written by Reese and the people depicted.