Through the Lenses of Vegan Photographers, Part 1 of 2

In this two-part show, we respectfully present to you a pair of highly dedicated vegan photographers, Havva Zorlu from Türkiye, and Amanda Clark from the USA. Sneaking into slaughterhouses, altogether a dangerous and gritty operation, demands great fortitude.

Born in Antalya, Türkiye, Havva Zorlu envisioned becoming a photojournalist from her youth. “My rejection of all animal exploitation systems started when I learned about artificial insemination, which is the most basic application of animal milk production. After two years of vegetarianism, I noticed that animals are not only persecuted for their body/meat but also for their milk, eggs, skins, fur and many other purposes. Respecting all lives led me to be vegan, and being vegan led me to activism in this field.”

“I take pictures to see and make visible the lives of animals in captivity by humans.” In 2022, Havva Zorlu completed her undergraduate education at Dokuz Eylül University in Türkiye, and while working on a project for her thesis “Vegan Activism and Animal Photojournalism,” she organized a photography exhibition titled, “SÜT,” featuring dairy farms and cow-people slaughterhouses.

After graduation, Havva Zorlu (vegan) was associated with the animal-people photojournalism agency We Animals Media, a non-profit founded by the award-winning Canadian photojournalist, Jo-Anne McArthur (vegan), a Shining World Compassion Award recipient and a Shining World Compassion Photographer Award recipient, who had inspired Ms. Zorlu immensely. Last year, in Türkiye, as an assignment with the media network, Havva Zorlu documented animal-people slaughter at Eid al-Adha (“Holiday of the Sacrifice”). In 2021, in Türkiye alone, over 3.7 million animal-people were killed during this period.

“Being vegan. Food, experimentation, fashion, entertainment etc. We have to start somewhere and do our best to make visible what animals are going through.”