S3, Ep18: Being an Animal Rights Photojournalist with Jo-Anne McArthur

This season of The ChickPeeps is brought to you by our friends at Vivo Life! Use our code 'chickpeeps10' to get 10% off your order at vivolife.com. This episode is also brought to you in partnership with the amazing plant based milk making machine, Almond Cow. Check out their website to find out more about making your own delicious, homemade plant milks and use code ‘chickpeeps15’ to get $15 off your Almond Cow at https://almondcow.co/. This week, Evanna and Tylor speak to award-winning photojournalist, author and founder of We Animals Media, Jo-Anne MacArthur. Jo-Anne's striking images of animals in captivity are known to all within the animal rights movement, and have moved thousands of people to deeply consider humanity’s relationship with animals. In this episode Jo-Anne shares her journey into veganism and animal rights, what she has learned in twenty years of photographing animals exploited by humans and whether or not she still remains optimistic about humanity.  Also in this episode… Jo-Anne describes how one chance encounter with a macaque monkey, while backpacking in Ecuador, inspired her to share the stories of animals. Jo-Anne tells us about her latest book Hidden: Animals in the Anthropocene. Jo-Anne explains why she refers to the animals used by humans as ‘hidden animals’ and why she has devoted her life to telling their stories. ‘We have to create artistic, beautiful images, even of things that are absolutely terrible’. Jo-Anne stresses the importance of producing visually stimulating pictures of animals and likens it to war photography. Tylor shares that, in his time at PETA, they often used Jo-Anne’s work in their campaigns. Jo-Anne talks about her organisation We Animals Media; a group of writers, filmmakers and artists, whose focus is to amplify the stories of animals. ‘Anyone doing this front-line animal work needs to have a big focus on resilience’. Jo-Anne discusses the importance of safeguarding her mental health and shares that she has previously suffered from PTSD. ‘I don’t think I have become desensitized. I think it is important to keep my heart wide open and just let it break, over and over’. Jo-Anne explains how emotional engagement with her subjects and remaining highly sensitised to the plight of animals is key to her being able to produce such striking images. Jo-Anne tells Evy and Tylor about the creation of her Animal Photojournalism Masterclass and very generously offers us 4 free passes to giveaway to you, our dearest ChickPeeps. Listen to the episode to find out how you can win one of the passes! Links: Make sure you check out Jo-Anne’s beautiful website  We Animals Media website We Animals Media Photo Galleries. Follow We Animals Instagram  Buy Jo-Anne’s new book Hidden: Animals in the Anthropocene Get In Touch: Bonus Content: ChickPeeps Patreon Instagram: @ChickPeepsPod Facebook: @ChickPeepsPodcast