From an elephant reaching out over a fence for human contact to a mournful frog behind a glass barrier, each photograph tells a story.
McArthur strives to get people talking about the ethics and morality of zoos, and seeks to question our way of seeing animals as ‘them’.
Zoos have been the subject of increased scrutiny over the past couple of years due to high-profile controversies – including the shooting of Harambe the gorilla at Cincinnati Zoo, and Copenhagen Zoo’s killing of healthy giraffe Marius and an entire family of healthy lions, including cubs.
Other big questions surround the penning of adult orcas at SeaWorld in the United States, which was highlighted in the documentary ‘Blackfish’ which told the story of Tilikum the killer whale.
After years of protests and public outcry following the documentary, SeaWorld announced it was ending its captive orca breeding programme in
March 2016.
Speaking about ‘Captive’ McArthur said: ‘Increasingly, zoos and aquaria are being called upon to undertake both ideological and physical changes to their institutions.
‘At the center of the current debates regarding the ethics of captivity are the animals and our moral obligations towards these “others”‘.
‘Captive looks at the animals we so often fail to truly see, and is my contribution to the ever-growing conversation about keeping these individuals on display.’
Through the book McArthur manages to take each penned animal and capture their individual stories, almost forcing the viewer to consider if this level of captivity and potential cruelty is worth their fleeting curiosity or enjoyment.
She also takes us inside a world which is normally viewed from the outside through a glass pane or fence.
At the heart of McArthur’s work appears to be the idea that we as observers see, and yet completely fail to see, animals held in captivity.
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