Not so long ago I was flipping through an art magazine and I saw a photograph of a sculpture with a headline that read, “the art speaks for itself” and a tsunami of panic hit me. My art does not speak for itself. Not at all. But that is precisely the point. This work is about change.

It’s about changing how we represent animals, in order to change how we think and engage with them and sometimes in order to facilitate change, or encourage its adoption, there needs to be a bit of explaining. I encourage you to read the image descriptions.

It is my hope that one day, a viewer might find the blurry and technical irregularity of an ostrich doing what it wants to do, beautiful. Why? Because that imperfection is a representation that privileges the animal’s agenda, instead of my own desire for a portrait, and that is cool! I hope that one day, you might find the lion behind the fence as meaningful as the one dozing in the purple flowers. Why? Because photographers often use animals that live behind bars in their work, and it is wrong to ignore that fact. And maybe a photograph that makes you feel a little uneasy, will provoke change.If protecting the environment and the people and animals who live in its midst is a goal, then it is imperative that we begin to think critically about how those relationships are represented. My work is about thinking animal differently.