Apples for Sale

With her multi-media work ‘Apples for Sale’ (2018) Rebecca Sampson investigates the living conditions of Indonesian maids in Hong Kong. The depiction of their degrading conditions is only a part of the wide-ranging work. The Berlin photographer creates a deep portrait of the social life of the migrant workers. For their product catalogue, an agency has the girls photographed in an apron printed with ‘Apples for Sale’, therefore the title. The maids would be deprived of every individuality, they would be degraded to house robots without identity, and only valued for appearance and personality. The realisation of their longing for autonomy, family or social contacts is only allowed on one day in the week; this is prescribed by law and falls on Sunday, the family day and the maids must leave the house. On this day they slip in a completely feminine environment into different social roles. A parallel world emerges which partly takes place on the streets of Hong Kong. Their social and cultural environment shifts more and more into the virtual world. There they can live out their individual personality without limits.