Looking
at
Animals
Have you ever wondered why zoos exist among us? How today humans have become so disconnected from animals and nature itself that we must observe it… neigh, study it, from afar? What intrigues us so about looking at animals that live in exhibited captivity?
As we all know, throughout history, animals were as important to man as man was to animals. If understood correctly, Berger’s About Looking quotes something of the likes:
“Animals came from over the horizon. They belonged there and here. Like
wise they were mortal and immortal. An animal’s blood flowed like human blood, but its species was undying and each lion was a Lion each ox an Ox. This – maybe the first existential dualism – was reflected in the treatment of animals. They were subjected and worshipped, bred and sacrificed.”
Today with capitalism’s influence and way of life, “animals are placed in a receding past”, as Buffon says in Burgers article:
“Man has raised himself above the state of nature, animals have fallen below it:
conquered and turned into slaves, or treated as rebels and scattered by force, their societies have faded away […]”
Are we so arrogant to think we’re above and beyond these creatures and see them as insignificant beings? We then have the need to capture them, exhibit them, and look at them.
But look at what? Artificial environments? Wild animals that aren’t really wild?
Caged to a small confinement, they are rarely stimulated like they wou
ld be in the natural state. In a Zoo, they don’t live with a constant watch for their survival. They wait for the zookeepers to feed them at appropriate times and lazy about with gazes not so genuinely returned to the visitors.
On another note, if these animals are somewhat domesticated per say, why should we pity them? A large number of the animals found in zoos originate from another zoo or the same, therefore the creature would not know any better. Like humans who are raised in their own culture or way of life, would they know better if we were without the gift of knowledge, wisdom and sagacity? My answer would most definitely be no. It would be their way of life
.
As we all know, throughout history, animals were as important to man as man was to animals. If understood correctly, Berger’s About Looking quotes something of the likes:
“Animals came from over the horizon. They belonged there and here. Like
wise they were mortal and immortal. An animal’s blood flowed like human blood, but its species was undying and each lion was a Lion each ox an Ox. This – maybe the first existential dualism – was reflected in the treatment of animals. They were subjected and worshipped, bred and sacrificed.”Today with capitalism’s influence and way of life, “animals are placed in a receding past”, as Buffon says in Burgers article:
“Man has raised himself above the state of nature, animals have fallen below it:
conquered and turned into slaves, or treated as rebels and scattered by force, their societies have faded away […]”Are we so arrogant to think we’re above and beyond these creatures and see them as insignificant beings? We then have the need to capture them, exhibit them, and look at them.
But look at what? Artificial environments? Wild animals that aren’t really wild?
Caged to a small confinement, they are rarely stimulated like they wou
ld be in the natural state. In a Zoo, they don’t live with a constant watch for their survival. They wait for the zookeepers to feed them at appropriate times and lazy about with gazes not so genuinely returned to the visitors.On another note, if these animals are somewhat domesticated per say, why should we pity them? A large number of the animals found in zoos originate from another zoo or the same, therefore the creature would not know any better. Like humans who are raised in their own culture or way of life, would they know better if we were without the gift of knowledge, wisdom and sagacity? My answer would most definitely be no. It would be their way of life
.In the end, this way of looking at creatures, animals, nature, or anithing else in that matter, will most definitly influence the way I look and observe things under the photographic eye in future sightings to come.
