Roadside Zoo: Challenging Anthropocentrism Through Photography

Abstract

In this article, I use a critical animal studies (CAS) lens to examine what it means to create and view photographs of roadside zoo animals. As a photographer and CAS researcher, I am particularly interested in situations where animal suffering is clearly visible, yet ignored, or perhaps framed as something else, such as entertainment. Since roadside zoos are legally sanctioned, open to the public, and encourage visitors to take pictures, they can be a powerful tool to reframe what it means to look at animal suffering. Roadside zoos are typically privately owned, unaccredited menageries charging an admission fee. They exist in every state in the USA, and they are legal. Through my photography, I hope to picture captive animals as individuals, and create photographs that empathetically call attention to the animal's boredom, frustration, and suffering through confinement. In this article, I discuss my “Roadside Zoo” photography series that I created while working on my dissertation (2025). Specifically I analyze the ethics of looking at and photographing roadside zoo animals from a CAS perspective. This includes an examination of issues of power, representation, perception, and empathy for both the photographer and the viewer. I conclude with a discussion of an artistic intervention that I made to these photographs, and examine how these altered visuals might allow us to better “see” the impact of incarceration on these zoo animals.