Long Shadow: A Project by We Animals Fellow Selene Magnolia Gatti

Through our Animal Photojournalism Fellowship, we’ve supported documentary photographer and photojournalist Selene Magnolia Gatti with her long-term project, ‘Long Shadow‘ which seeks to make industrial farming viscerally relevant to wider audiences.

Read on to learn more about this compelling project and what Selene had to say about her Fellowship experience.

We Animals (WA): Long Shadow is a strong and deeply moving visual project. What inspired you to undertake this project?

Selene Magnolia Gatti (SMG): In the Anthropocene, only 4% of the world’s mammals live in the wild. All the others, the so-called livestock that makeup 62% of the global mammal biomass, are there, but we don’t see them. Why is that? What are their lives like? While exploring these questions through my work over the past few years, I became curious about the social and environmental impacts of factory farming. All these invisible animals don’t exist in a void; in fact, communities of people must coexist with them. I wanted to explore their experiences.

 

Eleven billion chickens, 142 million pigs, 76 million bovine heads, 62 million sheep, 12 million goats, and counting: this is the population of invisible animals farmed in Europe yearly that live and die on the (dis)assembly line.

Intensive farming is the predominant method in Europe and worldwide to produce the meat, dairy products, and eggs that arrive on people’s tables daily. In 2024, it was also unanimously recognised as one of the top polluting industries worldwide, generating nearly 15% of total greenhouse gas emissions. However, the impact of livestock farming on the immediate environment remains relatively unexplored.

 

Through this ongoing project, I wanted to learn more about the lives that orbit around the so-called ‘production sites,’ focusing on the communities who live under the veiled grasp of factory farming in Europe.

WA: What do you hope to achieve through this project?

SMG: Through this project, I hope to contribute research to the discourse around factory farming. I hope this compilation of stories empowers affected people and makes them feel heard.

 

This project has made clear that we need more studies and a wider scientific community that works on the health impacts of factory farms on neighbouring communities. Hopefully, this work will become literature that plants a seed for future debate.

 

I also hope that Long Shadow poses questions to the general public concerning how we see our role on the planet and our relationship to the environment and the animals in a direction where we learn to coexist in harmony.

WA: Can you tell us about your experience in the field documenting the various stories that make up Long Shadow? Are there any particular experiences that have stayed with you?

SMG: Long shadows are cast around factory farms. Noise, smell, air toxicity, chronic disease, water pollution: factory farms project negative externalities that hit neighbouring communities first, often transforming local ecologies and endangering health and welfare.

 

In an atmosphere thick with suffocating smells, fear, and mutual vigilance, communities across Europe are grappling with the relentless impacts of intensive livestock farming. Anger and a sense of abandonment permeate the lives of the people I met, besides health problems that they think might be linked to the farm. Yet amidst the challenges, people must find a spirit of resilience. All of this was palpable during my visits to the protagonists of Long Shadow.

Some protagonists shared their mental health struggles; some could not leave the house or forget an open window, and some became physically ill. Many experience flu-like symptoms when the air is bad. Those with chronic illnesses worsen. People are forced to take on responsibilities that shouldn’t be on their shoulders and become self-taught legal experts, data collectors, researchers, or activists. I remember many people surrounded by big folders with paperwork, diaries, and records that they had to keep to try and fight for their situation.

 

I remember several situations when I felt the strong smell from the factory farms. Sometimes afterward, sometimes while sitting together with the people I was talking to, always inside the factory farms. I had headaches, a sore throat, and my eyes were burning. I felt exhausted. It is hard-hitting to experience the stories through your own body. I still ask myself how it must be to coexist with what overwhelmed me in a few hours for years if not entire lives, and having nowhere to go because it’s your home. For many people, it’s too painful to abandon a home that is their family home or the result of lifelong savings. Many want to leave but can’t afford it. The real estate value of homes drops by around 80% when a factory farm is nearby. Some want to stay because it’s a matter of pride, and they want to fight. The animals trapped in the factory farms must live an indescribable, never-ending nightmare: in a way, the cages and the sheds are their unfortunate homes, too.

WA: What has your go-to camera bag kit been during this project?

SMG: I shoot with an Olympus OM-D E-M1X. In my (messy) bag, I always have the camera, my 12-100mm f/4.0 and 40-150mm f/2.8 Olympus lenses, a voice recorder, a notebook, a small LED light, and my flashlight—a constant in many of the portraits. In a second bag is the drone. It is a fundamental tool for photographing the factory farms and their proximity to the dwellings from a higher perspective.

WA: How much have you been exploring image editing during this project, and what have you learned?

SMG: Image editing has been fundamentally important when putting together the body of work. One of the challenges of this project is that “nothing is going on.” There is no action, no major events. There is a series of “non-events,” steady stills capturing a reality where animals and people are stuck in space and time for what feels like an eternity.

 

I always had a special passion for editing. It is the part of the work when the story truly comes together, where editing makes the difference for a good story. Putting one image after the other and making them communicate is like writing to me.

 

I tried to create dialogues between portraits, close-ups of significant objects, environmental shots, farm images, and drone shots. I learned the power of steadiness, the importance of visual association, and the intimacy of environmental portraiture and its value in a documentary project.

WA: Tell us about your approach to media for this project – what has worked and why? Any advice for other animal photojournalists trying to get press coverage of these important yet underreported stories?

SMG: From the start, this project has been a lot of research, putting pieces together, analysing scientific papers, talking to experts, finding leads, visual editing, and writing. This pays off when presenting the story to the media. The human focus makes the topic relatable. I believe that factory farming truly is one of the most pressing issues of our political time – for its implications in the environmental crisis, the way it perfectly symbolises the capitalist oppression of the weakest (human and animal), and the distribution of power. For effective press coverage, we must remember how an issue is relevant for the entire community and have unbiased, in-depth research accompanying it when we pitch it to Editors’ desks.

 

I made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot. My suggestion to animal photojournalists is to think outside the box, to constantly hear many sides of a story with curiosity, to understand the angles specific medias have an interest in, and to back up a reportage with well-researched, unbiased journalistic hooks. Most importantly, do not give up!

SMG: We Animals believed in me and my project: I was in an initial phase of brainstorming, insecurity, and question marks, and receiving (and feeling) the support was very important. The Fellowship provided me with crucial economic support to cover a part of the work. Thank you so much.

WA: What would you say to others considering applying to We Animals’ Photojournalism Fellowship?

SMG: I think it’s an incredible opportunity, especially for someone with story ideas and who is passionate about challenging the human centrality we are all used to. The way We Animals is pioneering animal photojournalism as a genre is truly unique and their support and guidance will benefit future Fellows. Never give up believing in your work; the world needs it.

WA: What’s next for you with this project or your photojournalism more broadly? Are there any stories you’re particularly compelled to document?

SMG: I hope this project continues growing and reaches as many people as possible. My next plans include continuing to research, connecting with more affected people, and (hopefully) distributing the work.

 

More broadly, I plan to continue working on themes related to the environment, social justice, and our relationship with one another. It’s a huge privilege to witness what happens around us, to receive others’ stories, and to learn constantly.

WA: Where can people view and follow your work?

SMG: Thank you for any interest in following my work. This can be done on my website or via my Instagram account.

 

Long Shadow is an ongoing project. If there is anyone affected by animal factory farms near them, or you know someone who is, no matter how or where in the world, and if they want to share their story, I’d be happy if you would consider getting in touch with me.

 

I want to thank my colleagues Helena Spongenberg and Coline Charbonnier for working with me on aspects of this project, Greenpeace and Wildlight Global for the collaboration on some of its parts, and Journalismfund Europe for the additional grant support.

 

Above all, I want to thank those who decided to open up and share intimate stories of vulnerability and resilience.

Interested in learning more about our Animal Photojournalism Fellowship? Subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on social media to stay up-to-date with the latest from our Fellows.

Meet our 2024 Fellows, Bogna Wiltowska and Ira Moon.