Jo-Anne McArthur

Jo-Anne McArthur is an award-winning photojournalist, author, and sought-after speaker. She is the founder of We Animals Media, an internationally celebrated media agency that documents our complicated relationship with animals globally. The images have been used by hundreds of organizations, publishers and academics to advocate for animals. She is also the subject of Canadian filmmaker Liz Marshall’s acclaimed 2013 documentary, The Ghosts in Our Machine, and the co-founder of the Unbound Project, which showcases women on the front lines of animal advocacy. McArthur’s has authored three books - - HIDDEN: Animals in the Anthropocene (2020) (co-authored with Keith Wilson), an unflinching book of photography about our conflict with non-human animals around the globe, as depicted through the lenses of forty award-winning photojournalists. Captive (2017), an examination of the animals whom we’ve placed in zoos and we animals who look at them. It is a book that will change our preconceptions about zoos, aquaria, animal welfare and just what or who it is we think we see when we face the animal. We Animals (2014), which illustrates and investigates animals in the human environment: whether they're being used for food, fashion and entertainment, or research, or are being rescued to spend their remaining years in sanctuaries. McArthur’s photography and writing has been in publications such as National Geographic and National Geographic Traveller, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Lens Culture, Medium, VICE, the LA Times, Canadian Geographic, DAYS Japan, Helsingin Sanomat, Der Spiegel, PhotoLife magazine, Huffington Post, Outdoor Photography, and Feature Shoot. Her list of photography awards include 2020 Nature Photographer of the Year, Man and Nature category winner; 2019 Wildlife Photographer of the Year, photojournalism category; Italy’s Festival of Ethical Photography award, Single Shot; Austria’s Alfred Fried Peace Award in 2018; and the 2017 Wildlife Photographer of the Year, People’s Choice category. In 2021, McArthur served as a jury member for World Press Photo.