The Photography of Joe Zammit-Lucia
Posted by lisagbrown on June 2, 2009
“Portraits celebrating the animal as individual, not as mere specimen of species…”
Photos and text by Joe Zammit-Lucia
“Resignation”
“In the world of animal portraiture I would like to explore the narrow space between the animal as an object … and the animal as human property or as anthropomorphized or aesthetic object. A space where the conversation is about mutual respect between the subject and the viewer.”
”Hunted”
“Some scholars see wildlife photography as the modern equivalent of Victorian big game hunting and the colonial attitudes that went with it. We ’shoot’ and ‘capture’ animals and display the resulting images as trophies — the proud acheivement of an intrepid photographer ‘hunting with the camera.’”
”Pride”
“In some wildlife images, the animal, while visible to the eye, may not be visible to the mind. It is objectified or hidden in the blaze of color or the abstract pattern or the species behavior or the romanticized magnificence of Nature that is the true subject of the image.”
“Poise”
“The use of the collective [term] ‘wildlife’ leads us to view animals not as individuals but rather as specimens of species.”
For more information on the work of Joe Zammit-Lucia, click here to visit his website.
All text and images are by Joe Zammit-Lucia. Text is from the artist’s statement. The artist donates all profits from his photography to environmental causes.
