If you have ever lived with an animal, you know that they are far more than organized religion tells you they are. I remember being told at Sunday School that my cat didn’t have a soul, and that she wouldn’t go to Heaven, and that no animals went to Heaven because they were put on earth as lackeys and food for humans. I swore off Jesus then and there, because I knew that not only did she have a soul, she had a soul untarnished by greed and bullshit, unlike many of the humans I had encountered, even at a young age. London-born photographer Tim Flach is able to capture the soul of an animal in his images, and his book of portraits More Than Human more than lives up to its’ title. Each image stuns you with the depth of emotion and intelligence it conveys – it’s enough to make anyone a vegetarian, Earth-worshipping hippie when you stare into the eyes of a creature and hear its’ message of beauty and pain. Or maybe just me, I guess some people might want to eat them or hunt them and hang their heads on their walls, the same kind of people who feel uncomfortable around kids probably. Flach’s portraits go beyond voyeurism of the animal kingdom, and make you feel like you have stepped inside their world and stand on equal ground with lions, monkeys, bats and toads. His photographs are so intense you might do a double take and think they’ve been anthropomorphized somehow, but in reality Flach has been able to freeze one moment in their lives, one that conveys their spirit and life with ferocity. You can pick up More Than Human here, and remind yourself why our responsibility to this world is so great.
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