Interview with Jo-Anne McArthur

Driven by a sense of urgency and purpose, since1998 Jo-Anne McArthur's investigative photojournalism has captured the often difficult lives of animals living in the human environment. Dubbed the "We Animals" project, this massive photo essay has taken her to almost 40 countries, including Spain, parts of Africa and right here at home to cover bullfighting, poaching and human-animal companionship. All the while, her work has appeared in publications like Elle, The New York Times and Canadian Living.

		PHOTOGRAPHER Jo-Anne McArthur "The goal of "We Animals" has been to photograph animals in a way that breaks down the barriers humans have built that allow us to treat them as objects rather than sentient beings,' says McArthur. See more from her black-footed ferret shoot in the December 2009 issue of Canadian Geographic. Or, to view and learn more about McArthur's work, visit: www.joannemcarthur.com.
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Q Since black-footed ferrets have been extinct in the wilds of Canada for more than 70 years, how did you react to them as you photographed the breeding program at the Toronto Zoo?

A One of the good things about zoos is their conservation programs. Luckily, I wasn't being asked to photograph a sad, solitary lion pacing back and forth in a cage.

At first, my reaction to the ferrets was, "How cute!" But right away their keepers warn not to get your fingers too close because they're quite savage. The ferrets aren't given any human interaction to keep them as feral and wild as possible.

Photographing them was difficult because I was shooting through their cages and they hide down in dark plastic tubes that they like to sleep in.

Q What is "We Animals"?

A _We Animals is a large-scale photo essay chronicling animals as they live in the human environment. I titled the project before I even started shooting about 10 years ago. At the time, I had started looking at animals in a different way and realized it's not our right to use them as we want.

So far, the project has taken me to almost 40 countries; the subject matter is, unfortunately, endless. Every time I think I'm finished there's something new to shoot like whaling, shark finning or the dolphin slaughter in Japan. I'm publishing in bits and pieces. Right now it's everything I do when I'm not doing commercial work.

Q How do you find out about these abuses and prepare for a shoot?

A One of the key things is hooking up with NGOs. They help me find my subjects and suggest what to check out. Through research I discover where things like bear bile farming are happening. Although in a case like that, you can't find much information about it online. You need to get on the ground and start sniffing around.

In the past I travelled to Vietnam with the intent of finding out how food there was produced and prepared compared to the west. I hired someone to drive me around on a motorcycle and to take me to family farming operations. Doing things like that almost always pays off, even if it doesn't result in any shots. You talk with people and get new information. Eventually it led me to find dogs being sold for food in a live market.

Q Is it hard to get access as an investigative photojournalist?

A Sometimes you just have to play dumb. In Laos, I snuck into a bear bile farm and was snapping a bunch of photos when this guy walked up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. Surprised, I just acted ignorant and exclaimed; "I love bears!  Where did you get them? They're so sweet!" That bought me some time, and I was able to get in another 30 shots.

When bears stop producing "high quality" bile they cut off their paws for bear paw soup. It's a delicacy in Vietnam. So when I saw a bear without paws, I got in close and said, "Awww, what happened to its paws!?" Sometimes I just push my luck.  After a few more photos I was pointed to the door.

When I shot bullfighting in Spain I had to be very friendly and even a little flirty when I was approaching people to let me see behind the scenes or to photograph them. The culture around the fight is very macho, so my efforts paid off.

Q You've spent the past decade photographing animals. How would you compare it to photographing people?

A Photographing people involves more dialogue and work. I'm using the camera and words to work the situation. Unfortunately, a lot of animals in captivity have nowhere to go, so you photograph them as they are. It can be a very unsettling experience. At the same time, it makes you feel like you get right into them in a true way. There's no social gloss to it, and I don't have to ask them to turn a particular way. There is subtle manipulation to shooting people.

In Dubai, I photographed migrant workers from India. By coincidence, a lot of them were from a small town I had recently visited. They were happily surprised to hear of it, and we struck up a conversation. That friendly interaction comes across in those shots.

Q Do you photograph animals in a particular way to allow the viewer to identify with them?

A What I would like people to see in "We Animals" are things that go unnoticed, things we can walk by that don't even register. There's a photo of a girl with a deer head on a street in New York City. To me, she was in a city carrying the head of a sentient being. I doubt it would have chosen to have its head mounted on a wall. So I tried to capture the strangeness of the scene.

I'm not aiming to photograph animal portraits, rather to photograph animals in the human environment. It's very important for the viewer to see where we've put the animal and how we're treating it.

Q Are there particular photographers you identify with whose work is in the same vein?

AFrank Noelker made an incredible book of animals in zoos, entitled Captive Beauty. Ben Davies is another photographer who has shot the black market animal trade in Asia. His book Black Market has been a guide for my work.

Q Is it hard to get this kind of work published?

A Canada is quite conservative when it comes to publishing photo essays. Europe definitely publishes more edgy stuff, and you just see more photo essays in magazines there. Yes, I think we're afraid of publishing photos like these. Here people's attitude tends toward focusing on the fact that everything's fine; they don't really want to know that things like this are going on, even when it's in their own backyard. We're too afraid of offending anyone.

Interview by Graham Lanktree