We Animals Media Launches Animal Photojournalism Fellowship

We Animals Media has launched their inaugural Animal Photojournalism Fellowship, the first of its kind, to support one photojournalist to cover a story about animals used for food.

Animal photojournalism (APJ) is an emergent genre of photography that captures, memorializes and exposes the experiences of animals used for food, fashion, entertainment, tradition and research. These stories are underreported in major media and the Animal Photojournalism Fellowship aims to address this reporting gap by funding and mentoring one Fellow with a proven track record of documenting high quality animal stories who would benefit from funding and mentorship.

Still wet from birth, a calf is wheeled away from her mother to the veal crates at a dairy farm. Spain, 2010. Jo-Anne McArthur / Animal Equality / We Animals Media

What does the Animal Photojournalism Fellowship involve?

The program will support the Fellow to develop their skills in the following areas:

• Story development, execution and shooting technique
• How to investigate animal industries
• Post-production
• Promotion of a completed project
• Networking, partnerships and community

The Fellow will work remotely with Jo-Anne McArthur over a series of meetings beginning in January 2022 for up to 10 months and will receive CAD$6,400 to cover project costs and a living stipend. The Fellowship is a unique opportunity for an emerging animal photojournalist to complete a new story of animals used for food under the guidance of Jo-Anne, who has won numerous awards for and published several books on APJ.

“It’s a truly exciting time to be involved in animal photojournalism. We’re seeing its use at all levels of society, affecting individuals and policy, and helping campaigns and academia to further the stories of animals that must be told. This Fellowship is the kind of opportunity and support I would have dreamed of as I was getting my footing as a photographer. I’m so glad that we can offer it to someone working in animal photojournalism.” ― Jo-Anne McArthur

Audiences are now expecting more unflinching animal stories as the world awakens not only to the environmental toll of factory farming but of its enormous cruelty to animals. Animal agriculture is responsible for 14.5% of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, uses multiple times more water than crops, and occupies more than a quarter of all ice-free land on earth. Inside factory farms, animals are subjected to agonizing processes that commodify their bodies – cutting beaks, tails and genitals; intense confinement in often filthy conditions; prevention of natural proclivities; forced impregnation and parent-offspring separation.

A cow being transported across Europe reaches for a tree branch while the truck is parked at the Bulgarian-Turkish border. Turkey, 2018. Jo-Anne McArthur / Eyes On Animals / We Animals Media

Our use of animals is one of the most pressing moral calamities of our generation and by telling their stories We Animals Media and the Animal Photojournalism Fellow will help to illuminate what occurs behind doors closed by vested interests.