Animal rights and conservation are issues that wildlife photographers face in their field. Art as catalyst to social change is possible through photojournalism and photo essays. Photographers must consider the alternatives to portraying animals in submissive, demeaning perspectives. Circuses, petting zoos, and traveling animal exhibits may be common fodder for a cute day out with the camera, but are often settings for animal cruelty. Photographers have the power to show both sides of the animal rights debate, and shouldn't shy from focusing in on these situations.
Photographs are both evidence and beauty, capable of influencing the viewer.
Wildlife photographers could be considered animal activists, utilizing the potent possibilities of images to present aesthetic and ethical statements about animals. Photographs are often the closest many people will ever come to staring into a wolf's yellow moon eyes, or a tiger's midnight-lit gaze. Photographers can portray the nobility of animals, of intricately textured snake scales that appear painted on, to the lush plumage of birds, whose wings flow out in dazzling cloaks of color. Used under License.