the zoo

The zoo is not simply a place where animals are housed—it is a meticulously designed theatrical environment, a mise-en-scène, where both animals and humans perform within an orchestrated spectacle.

Every architectural and aesthetic choice—stages, props, simulated landscapes, artificial lighting—contributes to a carefully constructed world where nature is choreographed to align with human vision.

Overview and Historical Context

I see the zoological garden as a constructed representation of nature, shaped by historical and cultural forces.

Historically, zoos were microcosms of colonial and imperial imaginaries, designed to encapsulate distant geographies in controlled settings.

The Menagerie at Versailles, for example, showcased exotic fauna as symbols of power, while nineteenth-century zoological spaces reinforced ideas of dominance and possession.
Even in contemporary contexts, Carl Hagenbeck’s naturalistic zoo designs and the Paris Zoological Park’s biozones dictate how visitors engage with the animals—not as autonomous beings but as subjects within curated landscapes.

Methods, Process and Ethics

Jean Estebanez describes the zoo as a spatial dispositif—a structured environment that mediates human-animal interactions through scenographic interventions.

Bernard Tschumi, in his architectural approach to the Paris Zoological Park, applies cinematic and theatrical principles, designing biozones as successive frames that dictate how visitors perceive wildlife. These interventions shape power dynamics within the zoo, reinforcing a hierarchy in which humans observe while animals perform.

I find this theatricality unsettling. The artificiality embedded in the zoo’s mise-en-scène—the concealed barriers, the fabricated rock formations, the meticulously regulated lighting—raises ethical questions about authorship and agency: What does it mean to construct nature for human viewership? How does this choreography shape our perceptions of the wild?

To what extent do these spaces reinforce narratives of control over nature rather than coexistence with it?

Critical Framework

The zoo exists within a broader matrix of cultural representation, where nature is mediated through colonial, ecological, and philosophical paradigms. John Berger’s why look at animals? critiques the zoo as a space of estrangement, where animals no longer exist for themselves but instead for human spectatorship.

Donna Haraway’s concept of natureculture challenges the binary between nature and civilisation, exposing the zoo as an ideological theatre—a space where illusion and scenography dictate perception.

I am particularly drawn to how fake rocks, controlled lighting, and concealed barriers reinforce the zoo’s artificiality while maintaining the illusion of authenticity. These tactics construct believable geographies, yet they remain fragments of fiction—landscapes designed not for ecological integrity but for human satisfaction.

Practice and Outcomes

In this photographic series, I aim to disrupt conventional representations of the zoo by avoiding direct depictions of animals and instead focusing on the space itself—its artificial landscapes, fabricated rock formations, and controlled lighting.

By foregrounding these elements, I expose the underlying structure of the zoo as a mise-en-scène, revealing how these environments are constructed performances rather than authentic representations of nature.

The square frame imposes a sense of containment and balance, reflecting the structured and regulated nature of the zoo itself. Unlike panoramic compositions that suggest continuity, the square format isolates each image, presenting a fragment of a fragmented world.

This fragmentation mirrors the experience of moving through a zoo, where every turn introduces a new environment—a shift from an African savannah to an Asian jungle, each space carefully designed to satisfy human expectations of nature. Just as visitors traverse these simulated landscapes, my photographic repetition mimics this sense of constant arrival and departure, as if each frame were a window into a different part of the world.

By working in series, I create a visual rhythm that reinforces the illusion embedded in these environments. Each photograph stands alone, yet together, they construct a pattern of displacement, emphasising the fragmented nature of the zoo’s world.

My images do not present a cohesive narrative but rather a sequence of constructed realities—each moment suspended in a controlled aesthetic.

Through this methodology, I invite viewers to reconsider their perceptions of zoo spaces—not as windows into untouched ecosystems, but as designed spectacles, where nature is continually shaped and repackaged for human consumption. My work highlights the discontinuity in representation, revealing how these environments function not as natural landscapes but as carefully curated visions of nature, choreographed to fit human imagination.

 Thank you to the Auckland Zoo for their help.