Outsiders or Insiders? John Berger and the Ethical Reframing of Animals

Abstract

The paper focuses on the changing status of the moral framing of animals in Western visual culture in the last four decades. The author proposes to revise John Berger’s critique of the marginal way of seeing animals in modern museums and zoos. Both institutions presented animals as strangers to urban culture by keeping them isolated in showcases and cages. Mass media that disseminated wildlife documentaries kept on separating animals from human culture by picturing them as representatives of “wild” species. The paper brings attention to a decisive moment in the reframing of the public gaze, which occurred with the birth of two new visual genres. First, investigative documentaries and activist blogs allowed the human right to exploit animals to be criticized. Second, the rise of social networks allowed animals to be pictured as companions. The author argues that both genres caused an inclusive turn of public gaze that visually integrated animals into urban culture.