Photo Credit: Ira Moon
Last month we announced that we have awarded two Animal Photojournalism Fellowships for 2024 and introduced our first Fellow Bogna Wiltowska. This month we’re thrilled to introduce our second Fellow, Ira Moon. Ira is awarded a Fellowship in recognition of their compelling and unique project proposal and long-standing commitment to improving their photojournalistic eye.
Introducing Ira Moon
Ira Moon is an undercover investigator and animal photojournalist who has worked in industrial animal use facilities across Turtle Island (North America). Because of the nature of their work, we won’t be showing their face or revealing their true identity.
Ira has worked alongside both human and nonhuman labourers at factory farms and witnessed the exploitation of both firsthand. These experiences and deep participation in other social causes have informed Ira’s belief that all issues intersect and that no one is free until everyone is free.
Ira’s project will be undertaken within an agricultural community in Canada or the United States. They will collaborate with individuals in the human labour movement to document their work and home life through imagery and intimate interviews. With the support of this Fellowship, Ira hopes to explore the intersection between human workers and farmed animals, highlighting the story of the liberatory struggle shared by the human and nonhuman labourers in animal agriculture.
An emaciated calf on a small dairy farm stands tangled in the chain that attaches them to a plastic hutch by the side of a road. On dairy farms, calves are taken from their mothers and isolated in hutches to prevent them from consuming their mother’s milk. Vermont, USA, 2022.
Ira Moon / We Animals
“Animal advocacy has always required widening the scope of our compassion. I first got involved in undercover investigations because I cared about farmed animals and wanted them to be free from exploitation at the hands of profit-driven corporations. As I experienced daily life as a labourer on factory farms, I saw how the bodies of human workers were being exploited for those same companies.
I’m grateful to be trusted to explore this challenging perspective. To receive guidance, support, and critical feedback from some of the very best animal storytellers is a gift I will deeply cherish, and one I hope to pay forward in this pursuit of total liberation.” ― Ira Moon, 2024 Animal Photojournalism Fellow
Birds are often kept in makeshift cages at live animal markets. This male peacock displayed at the 2023 All Ontario Fur & Feather Associates “Buy, Sell, Trade Day” cannot turn around inside the cramped wooden cage he stands in, and his tail protrudes out into the rain. Shelburne Agricultural Fairgrounds, Shelburne, Ontario, Canada, 2023.
Ira Moon / We Animals
A protest drummer rests as activists with signs gather in front of a provincial courthouse to protest the Ontario ag-gag (agricultural gag) law. Superior Court of Justice, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2023.
Ira Moon / Animal Justice / We Animals
During a hunting contest, a foxhound bellows as they pursue a coyote in an enclosed “train and trial” pen. The property is stocked with captive coyotes who endure near-weekly terror from dogs sent in to chase and attack the trapped animals. Seeley’s Bay, Ontario, Canada, 2023.
Ira Moon / Animal Justice / We Animals
Beginning in July, Ira will work remotely with Jo-Anne McArthur and the We Animals team for approximately six months. The Fellowship honorarium, $6,500 CAD, will cover project costs and a stipend for the duration of their project.
We were delighted to receive submissions to the 2024 Animal Photojournalism Fellowship from candidates across four continents, spanning Asia, North and South America, and Europe. Of particular note this year was the interest from individuals working within other NGOs seeking the opportunity to level up their skills via the Fellowship.
In addition to awarding two Fellowships this year, we are excited to be able to consider several new photojournalists for commissioned assignments. We look forward to sharing these new stories with you over the coming months.
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