Clouded vision: strategies of occlusion in photographic representations of the other-than-human.

We are in the midst of an existential crisis. Despite years of warnings, we as a species continue to consume the natural elements of the planet at a voracious and unsustainable rate. The Western extractivist framing of these elements as ‘resources”, conceptualised during the period of the so-called Enlightenment, is enabled through an Anthropocentric vision of the universe, centring human existence, whilst simultaneously disenfranchising all other-than-human existences. This paper proposes a recalibration of this exclusionary vision as one of the processes required to mitigate these crises. In order to decentre our human experience, we must extend visible citizenship to the other-than-human elements of our planet, re-establishing the ecological balance of our relationship. This shared planetary citizenship is already recognised as the lived experience of indigenous cultures, and is beginning to be reflected in new legislation, such as that recognising the “personhood” of Te Awa Whanganui/the Whanganui River in Aotearoa-New Zealand. How can a photographic practice avoid rendering its subjects fully visible, and thus exposing them to a possessive and colonising gaze? This question is just as important when that subject is other-than-human. Through processes of lens-based and lens-less photographic imaging, many practitioners are investigating degrees of visibility in relation to the more-than-human citizens of the world. In this paper I offer examples, from both the Global South and North, of artists who are utilising these strategies in their work; acknowledging the complicated relationships woven between photo-filmic technologies and the subjects of our human gaze.