Animal Control
By Jessie Mason
2 March 2008
To combat inhumanity most go for the shock value and take pictures of KFC chickens being boiled alive or emotionless slaughterhouse workers slashing throats of livestock. But many still think of the creatures as "just animals".
In my work I combine drama with comedy by replacing the animals with myself. Many of their experiences echo our own, with themes of display, ownership, abuse, and most importantly, control. I try to work with symbolism you might see in a cartoon, because just about everyone can relate to that. I am all for democratic art that can be seen by everyone, thats why I have a website. The dramatic lighting counteracts the playfulness of the images, and the eerieness of the coloring adds to the unsettling quality of the photos.
By putting myself in the animals' situation, I ask the viewer, "If this were happening to a person, wouldn't you be outraged?"
I use my family and friends in domestic settings to bring the reality of the matter close to home. I know that we can't do much about big companies abusing animals, but we at home can still treat living things with respect and dignity. It always starts at home. Experts have found that people who abuse and murder humans almost always start out hurting animals when they were young due to this lack of compassion.
I don't think I will ever be fully done with the series since it is so near and dear to my heart and also because animal abuse is gaining more recognition due to the uncovering of dog fighting circles and more and more people caring about the environment and where this planet are headed. If I can prove that we aren't so different, maybe we can treat animals as well as human beings, with the respect we deserve.
