The Zoo Portfolio
May 1 – 31, 1997
Perhaps I began this portfolio of animals in their cages because of a compassionate heart. For hours, sometimes whole days, I observed and waited for those moments of silence when the animals would reveal their beauty and grace.
When I grew up in Berlin we lived close to the zoo which I visited often. Strong memories and feelings remain and urge me to make larger connections to what happens on this planet.
Today we are separated from our ancestral past- a time when we lived an integrated life with nature and when animals were respected and essential to our survival. Confronted with the animal world our sentiment now places the animals beneath us; yet they are a mystery which goes beyond us and encompasses us, one which obliges us to face the central mystery of being.
Photography, as a showdown with reality, throws us back to our ancestral astonishment with regard to animals.
In my work the animals are presented captive, preframed by the walls and bars of their prison. Sometimes they appear to be sending us signals of desperation. Sadly, the zoo has become a place where the animals make their last stand.
Since I was a kid the Zoo has always been a magical place for me. Where else can one go where life on this planet is presented in such density? Sadly, it is also a place where some of the animals make their last stand. There is no doubt that we have become the agents of natural selection and control what species will survive. Not long ago we respected the animals because we depended on them for our survival.
To me there is still time for contemplation for what is left of the animal world and in this sense the camera here is simply a research tool for me albeit loaded down with the pressures of art making history.
It can be argued that we (man) are here to change things. That’s our job.
Is it also our job to judge how we change things?
Volker Seding was born in Berlin in 1943. He studied under master photographer Klaus Berger in Hannover, Germany, coupled with his attendance at art school, where he studied drawing, painting, and later cinematography, from 1962-1965. He immigrated to Canada in 1966 where he worked as a cinematographer doing documentary films, industrial commercials, and feature films. In 1976, he returned to his first love, photography, and worked solely as an artist until he passed away. His work has been exhibited widely across North America and can be found in numerous important institutions and private collections, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa; Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton; amongst many others.