Why Look at Animals? with Jo-Anne McArthur and Zed Nelson

Thursday December 11th
Doors & drinks at 6.30pm; Talks starts 7pm

How can contemporary photography, by focussing on our broken bonds with animals and the rest of the natural world, help drive a paradigm shift in our priorities and empathies?

Award winning photographers Jo-Anne McArthur and Zed Nelson will be at Kairos to explore that question through two 20-minute visual presentations, followed by group discussion.

Zed Nelson’s new book, The Anthropocene Illusion examines the way in which we construct artificial, stage-managed environments to mask our destructive impact on the natural world. The six-year project received the Sony World Photography Award 2025 and has been exhibited widely. Zed will discuss John Berger’s 1977 essay "Why Look at Animals?" and its impact on his own work. Berger's ground-breaking text explores how the ancient relationship between man and the rest of nature has been broken in the modern consumer age with the animals that used to be at the centre of our existence now marginalised and reduced to spectacle. It's credited with influencing other recent art works, including a new performance piece by Complicite's Simon McBurney and choreographer Crystal Pite, and a recent exhibition at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens.

Jo-Anne McArthur, whose photographs document sites of animal exploitation and the individual animals trapped within them, will discuss the role photography can have in developing a new visual language, building a global movement and writing a new future. She will focus on We Animals, the platform she's founded through which photographers can contribute to a vast, and growing, visual resource for those in animal advocacy.

The evening will include a break for a one-pot vegan supper.

Kairos, 84 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4TG

Doors open at 6.30pm for drinks. Talks starts at 7pm. 

£8 Frequent Visitor and Supporter Members; £15 Standard (includes Community Members); £10 Struggling financially; £8 Under 30s; £20 Supporter. Food complimentary. (To find out more about membership, visit our Membership page.)

Before requesting a discounted ticket, please consider sincerely: Are you struggling to meet your basic needs? Would you have to make a genuine sacrifice to buy a full priced ticket? Do you have reduced earnings through a lifestyle choice or rather because you're dedicating your time to unpaid work relating to the climate and nature crises or as a result of structural inequality? If you're struggling to pay even the reduced price please contact us on events@kairos.london.

Please note that most of our events take place in our basement space and we do not have a lift so our venue is not fully accessible. Please get in touch if you have accessibility issues via events@kairos.london.

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