Malay Tapir, Brookfield Zoo, Chicago 1985

Editor: This is Volker Seding’s “Malay Tapir, Brookfield Zoo, Chicago,” a photograph taken in 1985. There’s a palpable sense of loneliness in this image; the stark enclosure seems to amplify the isolation of the tapir. What symbols or imagery strike you in this piece? Curator: Immediately, the enclosure itself stands out. Cages have historically been depicted as emblems of control and restriction but more subtly also as protection and care, referencing the "Zoo" as a place of curated experience, artificial or otherwise. It references the modern attitude to preservation versus presentation of nature, highlighting the uneasy truce between respecting animal life and using it for human edification. What emotions does it conjure for you? Editor: It definitely makes me question the ethics of keeping animals in captivity, even if it's for conservation purposes. The harsh lighting and the decaying walls seem to underscore that sense of confinement. Do you see any elements that speak to something beyond confinement? Curator: Yes. The sparse foliage above suggests a longing for a wildness, an almost Edenic remembrance that the tapir itself embodies— a living fossil whose existence speaks of a different time and world. This tension between confinement and the intimation of an untamed existence forms the photograph's powerful emotional core, a potent juxtaposition in visual storytelling. Editor: That's fascinating, I hadn’t thought about it in terms of historical memory. I'll definitely be pondering on that tension a little more. Curator: Consider how Seding utilizes light as a narrative tool – bathing one side of the animal while shadows obscure its eyes; each of those factors further inform my reading. Food for thought as we move onward.