Domestic animals: a photographic exploration of the dependence between pets and their owners within the domestic domain

Submission note: An exegesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement of Master of Visual Art by Research by creative work to the Art Institute, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Bundoora.

Domestic Animals is a Masters of Visual Art project that focuses on the intimate and complex interdependence between pets and their owners within the domestic domain. While investigating divisions between species, I also discover an intriguing sense of equality between pets and their owners. This research is conducted through photography and presented as a series of digital colour prints for exhibition and the publication of a photobook. The following exegesis contextualises the photographic thesis in art historical, philosophical and socio-cultural terms. The photographic thesis visually and contextually explores the anthropomorphic qualities that people assign to their pets under the aegis of play, obedience and nurturing. Within this visual exploration, aspects of human nature are reflected through people’s animals and vice-versa. The medium of photography has allowed me to enter a large number of homes where a very personal interaction, the established relationship between pet and pet owner is directly and indirectly communicated to me and I am able to capture the junctures of each relationship. These intrinsically personal relationships are deliberately depicted within the pet and pet owner’s domain – a space that is common and mundane – where such relationships occur privately and are not normally expected or seen by the public. The questions that inspired this project and others discovered throughout my practice-based research are: despite the evolution of the human species distinguishing itself from all other species on the planet, why have we retained the basic instinctual, psychological and perhaps carnal need to be with or around animals? And how can the pet-human relationships that are established as a result of these needs be conveyed, translated and better understood through contemporary photography? The outcome of my research and photography has revealed intriguing conceptual and artistic results and as such, has made visible the unseen, often quirky and intimate connections that people have with their pets. Even though there remains a division between species, their roles and sometimes indistinct hierarchies within the domestic domain, this is rarely the division between beings that might be expected.