“The military liked to use the stories of animal heroism performed by man’s best friend to set an example for the soldiers.”
Editorial
Articles
“Why look at animals?” asks art critic John Berger. I would like to address this question by paraprashing it and asking instead, “why look at dead animals?” Extinct or rare animals are the most interesting objects of the camera of curiosities and natural history museums. Hiroshi Sugimoto focuses on the dioramas where animals are shown in their habitats. Lynn Savarese revitalizes taxidermied animals as heroes of a story. Humans and animals have equal value in Michael Ackerman’s photographs. Nobuyoshi Araki’s visual diaries contain stories on life and death. Nezaket Tekin creates utopist scenes using insects. Her other work also involves documenting dead animals.
- Keywords: dead animals, dead people, photographs of dead animals, post-mortem photography, spirit photography
Nezaket Tekin (Hamburg, 1972) is Assistant Professor at the Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Photography. Her PhD thesis was about André Malraux’s ‘Imaginary Museum’ theory. Some of her lectures are: History of Photography, Photography Project, Art Management, and Memory Places. She researches on memory studies, ecology and contemporary photography. She has spent the last decade taking photos of nature and animals.
- Ackerman, M. 1999. End Time City. Italy: Scalo.
- Batukan, C. 2016. Anima-lizm. İnsan, Hayvan ve Bitkilerde Ruh Üzerine. Istanbul: Altıkırkbeş.
- Berger, J. 1992. “Why Look at Animals?” In: About Looking. Vintage.
- Burnett, R. 2012. İmgeler Nasıl Düşünür?. Istanbul: Metis.
- Çüçen, A. 2011. Derin Ekoloji. Accessed June 2, 2019. Available online here.
- Devall, B. 1990. Simple in Means, Rich in Ends: Deep Ecology in Theory and Practice. Green Print.
- Koriyama, S. 2014. Apartments of Lonely Deaths in Tokyo. Accessed March 30, 2019. Available online here.
- Picq, P., Digard, J.P. 2015. Hayvanların En Güzel Tarihi. Istanbul: İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları.
- Savarese, L. n.d. “Still Life Aviary.” In: Lensculture. Accessed January 9, 2019. Available online here.
- Simanek, D. E. 2019. Arthur Conan Doyle. Accessed March 19, 2019. Available online here.
- Sugimoto, H. 2019. Accessed June 2, 2019. Available online here.
- Topçuoğlu, N. 2000. Fotoğraf Ölmedi Ama Tuhaf Kokuyor. Istanbul: YKY.
The article focuses on examples of also using animals for war propaganda. Photography served to justify animal drafting, to keep up the military morale, and to show how cruel the enemy was. The animal ‘heroes’ of the newspapers– horses, dogs and pigeons – illustrate the attitude of humankind toward animalkind in the first industrial and technological war that showed the vulnerability and the nonsense of using animals on the fronts.
- Keywords: animals in war, First World War, photography, propaganda images of animals, representation of animals, surveillance
Jani Pirnat (1974), art historian and curator, a founding member of the Domestic Research Society, a curatorial and art group established in year 2004 with artists Alenka Pirman and Damijan Kracina. As a curator and organizer of art events, he was employed by the SCCA – Centre for Contemporary Art Ljubljana (2003–2004), the National Museum of Slovenia (2007), Škuc Gallery Ljubljana (2010–2012), Celje Centre for Contemporary Art (2012–2013) and collaborated with Ljudmila Digital Art Laboratory. He used to live and work in Osaka, Japan between 2013 and 2015. Focusing on contentious heritage research under the Domestic Research Society, he was part of a consortium partnership for the HORIZON 2020 project TRACES, researching death masks phenomena. He currently holds the position of senior curator at the Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana (MGML), curates the contemporary art program at the Match Gallery, and is a member of the art and organisation board of the Indigo Festival Ljubljana.
- Cooper, J. 2000. Animals in War. Berkshire, Great Britain: Cox & Wyman ltd.
- Fabi, L. 2004. Guerra bestiale. Uomini e animali nella grande guerra. Cremona: Persico Europe.
- Fritz, J. n.d. “‘Embedded Photography’: Kriegsfotografen als Teil der militärischen Logistik.” Accessed May 29, 2019. Available online here.
- Gardiner, J. 2006. The Animal’s War. London: Piatkus Books ltd.
- Ilustrirani glasnik, 1914–1917. Ljubljana: Katoliška tiskarna.
- Koncilja Ž. 2008. Prezrti heroji velike vojne: Konji, psi, golobi in ostale živali na frontah prve svetovne vojne. Bachelor’s Thesis, Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana.
- Lavrenčič, A. 1998. “Ko žival postane človeška, se ne zmeni za korenine lastnega debla – Basni iz obdobja 1914–1918 / Usode zamolčanih vojakov vseh vojn.” In: Zgodovina za vse, no. 1: 30–36.
- Singleton, J. 1993. Britain’s Military Use of Horses 1914–1918. Past & Present, 139 (1), May, 178–203. Available online here. https://doi.org/10.1093/past/139.1.178
- Tausk, P. 1988. A Short History of Press Photography. Prague: International Organization of Journalists.
- Wittenburg, Jan-Peter. 2007. “Photographie aus der Vogelschau: zur Geschichte der Brieftaubenkamera.” In: Photo Deal, 4 (59): 16–22.
Interviews
Maja Smrekar is a visual artist addressing current phenomena in contemporary society. Her earlier works often touch upon the mundane permeated by stereotypes of popular culture, the future as understood through fiction, and the ethical aspects of human interventions in nature and natural processes. In 2014, she began performing her continuous work K-9_topology, in which she analyses the causes and consequences of human domination on the planet, and questions the self-evidence of the anthropogenic mentality. During the following four years, this artistic research and extremely interdisciplinary action led her to deeply explore the relationship between a human and a dog. Individual elements of the project were introduced through performance, installation, artist book, and photography. The following interview focuses on this segment of her work; on her reflections on the relationship between a human and an animal; and on certain important social contexts that define her work.
- Keywords: contemporary art, human-dog relation, performance art, posthumanism, wildlife domestication
Miha Colner (born 1978) has graduated from Art History and works as a freelance curator and art critic. Colner works as a curator and programme coordinator at the International Centre of Graphic Arts / Svicarija Creative Centre in Ljubljana. He is also active as a publicist, specialised in photography, printmaking, artists’ moving image and various forms of (new) media art. In the period 2006-2016 he was a curator at Photon – Centre for Contemporary Photography, Ljubljana. Since 2005 he has been a contributor of newspapers, magazines, specialist publications, and his personal blog, as well as part-time lecturer. In 2006, he became a member of the project group Station DIVA at the SCCA Institute in Ljubljana, which is creating an archive and conducts research on Slovenian video art. In 2007, he co-curated and co-organized Break 2.4 festival, held biannually by K6/4 Institute. Since 2005, he has also worked as an art critic and a regular member of the cultural department at Radio Študent – he is an editor of the show on contemporary art Art-Area. He is also a regular external contributor to the daily newspaper Dnevnik and to the magazines Fotografija and Art-Words. He occasionally contributes to other specialist magazines on fine art and music, such as Maska, Forum, Časopis za kritiko znanosti, Flash, Folio, Zarez, Art Kontura, Frakcija (Croatia), Foto dokumenti (Serbia), Flaneur, Cluster (Great Britain), and Sculpture Network (USA). He lives and works in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
http://mihacolner.com
http://www.mglc-lj.si
- Andreia Alves de Oliveira, David Bate
We meet with David Bate, artist and theorist working in photography in a Portuguese cafe in London the day the United Kingdom is holding what will most probably be its last European Parliamentary elections. The country has been at the forefront of education in photography, offering a record number of university degrees which historically were pioneer in introducing critical theory as part of the curriculum. But today this situation might have changed. The conversation flows freely between Bate’s experience of growing up in a working class area in 1970s UK and the realities of today’s educational and social system, the correlation between theory and practice and the paradoxes of the digital image and our current relation to it, aiming to introduce (or update) our readers to one of the most thought provoking and rigorous critical practitioners (which is to say, thinkers) working in and with the medium today.
- Keywords: certainty and photography, David Bate, image virtuality, photography and truth, photography education, representation
Andreia Alves de Oliveira is a photo artist, researcher and lecturer based in London. She holds a PhD (2014) and an MA (2009) in photographic studies from the University of Westminster and is visiting lecturer in Photography at Birmingham City University. Previously, she studied law and worked as a lawyer. Andreia’s practice and research are concerned with the notion of artistic research, as well as the theory of photography and theories of representation, in relation to concepts of space and the everyday. www.andreiaoliveira.net
- Bate, D. 2018. “Camera Phones and Mobile Intimacies.” In: The Evolution of the Image. Political Action and the Digital Self, edited by Marco Bohr and Basia Sliwinska, Ch. 1. New York: Routledge.
- Manovich, L. et. all. 2014. Selfiecity. Accessed May 30. Available online here.
- Stiegler, B. 2016. Automatic Society: The Future of Work. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Reviews
- Monika Schwarzler
- y
Macinnis’ photographs of various groups of animals are so striking because all the animals assembled in front of the camera seem to be most willing to accept the camera’s gaze and the power relation implied. Animals are usually hard to photograph, because they are not particularly collaborative, unpredictable in their movements, and tend to flee the frame. Macinnis’ protagonists pose and look straight into the camera. They appear tame, pacified, ‘civil’, patiently awaiting their pictorial equivalent. As in all well-managed and representative group photos, there are no obvious signs of disorder or potential subversion. Macinnis’ patchwork families look friendly and demonstrate unity and a sense of aesthetic order. Macinnis’ photos allow for a reflection on group photographs and their specific arrangements. At the same time, they make one painfully aware of the disciplinary nature of the photographic act. Posing and freezing in front of the camera is a cultural practice that had to be trained and appropriated. Narratives from the beginnings of photography prove that. By looking at Macinnis’ fully disciplined animal models, one realizes how much of our own unruliness we had to give up to fit into the photographic system.
- Keywords: animal group portraits, anti-photographs, composite images, discipline
Monika Schwarzler is an Associate Professor at Webster Vienna Private University, Department of Media Communications; Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Vienna; graduate training at the Museum of Modern Art in Vienna; taught at Webster University in St. Louis, MO and in the study abroad program of the University of Oregon; lectures at the International Summer and Winter School of the University of Vienna; founder and chair of the T.K. Lang Gallery at Webster University. Main fields of research: visual culture, art and media theory, history of photography, animation. Most recent publication: At Face Value and Beyond. Photographic Constructions of Reality, Transcript Verlag, 2016.
The article analyzes the artistic process of the Berlin-based photographer Vanja Bučan, who always manages to maintain at least some recognizable expression despite her varied approaches. Her works are visually rich, carrying complex meanings and associations. She chooses not to directly reflect the collective and the individual everyday life but depicts universal existentialist motifs where the social perspective is usually shown through metaphors and allegories. The centerpiece of her work is the relationship between culture and nature and between humans and their environment, as well as the ontology of image in mass media circulation. Her photography requires a considerable degree of cerebral activity and intuition in order to sense some of the fundamental questions of humankind in the Anthropocene.
- Keywords: Anthropocene, art photography, photographic mise-en-scene, representation of nature
Miha Colner (born 1978) has graduated from Art History and works as a freelance curator and art critic. Colner works as a curator and programme coordinator at the International Centre of Graphic Arts / Svicarija Creative Centre in Ljubljana. He is also active as a publicist, specialised in photography, printmaking, artists’ moving image and various forms of (new) media art. In the period 2006-2016 he was a curator at Photon – Centre for Contemporary Photography, Ljubljana. Since 2005 he has been a contributor of newspapers, magazines, specialist publications, and his personal blog, as well as part-time lecturer. In 2006, he became a member of the project group Station DIVA at the SCCA Institute in Ljubljana, which is creating an archive and conducts research on Slovenian video art. In 2007, he co-curated and co-organized Break 2.4 festival, held biannually by K6/4 Institute. Since 2005, he has also worked as an art critic and a regular member of the cultural department at Radio Študent – he is an editor of the show on contemporary art Art-Area. He is also a regular external contributor to the daily newspaper Dnevnik and to the magazines Fotografija and Art-Words. He occasionally contributes to other specialist magazines on fine art and music, such as Maska, Forum, Časopis za kritiko znanosti, Flash, Folio, Zarez, Art Kontura, Frakcija (Croatia), Foto dokumenti (Serbia), Flaneur, Cluster (Great Britain), and Sculpture Network (USA).
He lives and works in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Projects
- Hendrik Zeitler
- y
- Marko Stojanović
- y
Essays
Panos Kompatsiaris is Assistant Professor of Art and Media at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Russia. He holds a PhD in art theory from the University of Edinburgh (2015) and has contributed to journals and edited volumes with texts on art and media theory, ethnography and cultural studies.
- Pick, Anat. 2011. Creaturely Poetics: Animality and Vulnerability in Literature and Film. New York: Columbia University Press. https://doi.org/10.3366/film.2015.0023
Lenart J. Kučić is a journalist, lecturer and researcher of mass media. For 10 years, he covered the intersection of media, technology and society for Delo newspaper Saturday supplement. Last year he joined the media for investigative journalism Pod črto (The Bottom Line). He is also the founder of the Marsowci podcasting network and co-author of several research and expert articles on media ownership.
Featured
Impressum

MEMBRANA 6 / 2019 • ISSN 2463-8501 • https://doi.org/10.47659/m6
publisher: Membrana, Maurerjeva 8, 1000 Ljubljana • tel.: +386 (0) 31 777 959 • email: info@membrana.org
editors: Jan Babnik (editor-in-chief), Ilija T. Tomanić
editorial board: Mark Curran (Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland; Freie Universität Berlin, Germany), Ana Peraica (independent researcher, educator, Croatia), Witold Kanicki (UAP Poznań, Poland), Miha Colner (International Centre for Graphic Arts, MGLC, Ljubljana, Slovenia), Lenart Kučić (independent journalist, Pod črto, Slovenia), Emina Djukić (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia), Jasna Jernejšek (independent researcher, curator, Slovenia), Asko Lehmuskallio (University of Tampere, Finland), Devon Schiller (independent researcher, USA), Robert Hariman (Northwestern University, USA) • advisory board: Alisha Sett, Andreia Alves de Oliveira, Iza Pevec, Matej Sitar
contributors: Carole Baker, David Bate, Emina Djukić, Miha Colner, Joan Fontcuberta, Jasna Jernejšek, Panos Kompatsiaris, Lenart J. Kučić, Montse Morcate, Andreia Alves de Oliveira, Jani Pirnat, Urška Savič, Monika Schwärzler, Maja Smrekar, Nezaket Tekin
translations: Sonja Benčina, Graham Thomson • proofreading: Tom Smith
image & projects contributors: Joan Fontcuberta, Lenart Kučić, Aleksandrija Ajduković, Bojan Mijatović, Clare Benson, Vanja Bučan, Borut Peterlin, Manuel Vason, Anže Sekelj in Hana Jošić, Sandra Odgaard, Manca Jevšček, Dagmar Kolatschny, Artur Kucharczak, Marko Stojanović, Hendrik Zeitler, Rob Macinnis, Montse Morcate, Nobuyoshi Araki, Michael Ackerman, Nezaket Tekin, Anja Carr, Klaus Pichler, Alexandra Soldatova, Daniel Szalai, Maja Smrekar
design: Primož Pislak
printing: Cicero • print-run: 400
all images and texts © Membrana, except when noted otherwise • editorial photograph: Marko Stojanović, Oases XI, Amsterdam, 2016, courtesy of the author • last page photo: Central News Photo Service, Equipt (sic) for the trenches, (1914–1918). Courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington.