Telling "We Animals" Stories: Interview with Jo-Anne McArthur (vegan), Part 3 of 4

“One of my main bits of advice for people who are photographing animals who want to show them or bring out the individual is to get down. Usually often, animals are smaller than us, so to get down and to get close and just to be patient and stay still and let them come to you and let them express their curiosity about you, and then you will be able to photograph something of that animal that is more about them and less about us looking down at them. What I really want to show is ‘we animals’ and how we are treating those animals. And so, it’s important to me to show the constructs that we have created in which we keep these animals. And so sometimes, the animal is not even really the subject of the photo – it’s everything that’s happening around that animal that we have done, that we have constructed.” “And I’ve also spent some time photographing at slaughterhouses recently. I’m just witnessing, I’m focusing on the individuals who are being slaughtered, and this is literally hell on Earth. I just can’t believe that we have created systems that work this way and that, not only do we slaughter beautiful living beings, but we do it in front of them, in front of all the others. It’s absolutely horrific, and it’s worldwide. It’s a complete lack of respect for all others, and it really is shocking. And that’s why, unfortunately, I have to keep getting up close to the slaughter so that we can all see that this is really how we’re doing it.”