I first saw Britta Jaschinski's work at the
Wildlife photography of the year exhibition at the Natural History museum last
year. To me, her black and white Lion portrait holds so many emotions, whilst
demonstrating her eye for beauty and skills as a photographer. The image is out
of focus, grainy and very high contrast, which is how I was taught not to take a photograph in my A-level photography
class! However I believe all this adds to the emotional impact of the image.
She has captured a fleeting moment of the lion, showing how rare it is to see
such a beautiful creature from such a close
proximity. The off focus and high contrast of the image emphasizes the elegance
and texture of the lion's mane. Most of the lion's body is engulfed in blackness,
which to me provokes an eerie feeling about how African animals are starting to
slip away, leaving behind just brief glimpses and fading memories from old
photographs.
Her Zoo Project -
Like me, Britta Jaschinski's photographic projects,
to explore animals in captivity, were developed at London Zoo. She photographed
animals in zoos, focusing more on their portraits and personalities than
documentation. In an interview Britta says "the more photos depicting the
truth about captive animal, the better". She feels very strongly that zoos
are wrong which was reflected in her work; "the subject matter of zoo is a
very depressing one for me. Much pain swept through my lens and a lot of that
agony created those images. I framed boredom, frustration and insane animals
and I wouldn't ever know how to produce a bright image on that."
Jaschinski felt "naturally drawn towards
animals" and started off by documenting the treatment of them in farms, slaughterhouses
and animal testing laboratories. On her first trip London Zoo she says she,
"spent hours taking photos and when I processed the film I was shocked
about my discovery"..."And here it was, right front me - my own
photos explain to me why I felt depressed about the fate of these sentiment
beings who had been incarcerated in the name of education in conversation. Each
of the species is locked into a version of hell, purely for entertainment. From
then on I felt it was my duty to visit more and more zoos to investigate
whether the are actually zoos that play an active role in the education and
conserving."
Jaschinski's use of black-and-white engulfs the
animals, creating a dark pessimistic atmosphere; her photographs show a bleak and
melancholy look on animals in captivity. They hold a sense of unease, making
the viewer feel slightly uncomfortable. You are more able to sympathise with
the animals, because the style of the photographs are more like portraits, than
documentary. This humanizes the animals, showing them in states, such as
isolation and frustration, to which we can relate... They look as though
they’ve given up on the world, and all that is left is a meaningless existence,
for the satisfaction of people’s need
for entertainment. They seem like empty shells with no life left in them, just staring
helplessly into space; even the
structure of the composition locks the animals in a rectangular cage.
The unnatural urban environment stands out as an
oddity, as we’re used to seeing photographs of animals in their natural
environment. But who knows, maybe in the future this is the only way animals
will be perceived, in an urban landscape surrounded by metal bars or thick
scratched, scarred glass.
