On coming into animal presence with photovoice

Methodological advancement within more-than-human geography lags behind its theorization. As an intervention into the promise of visual methods for enlivening more-than-human geographies, I describe working with a photographic practice for exploring geographies of encounter between humans, the animals they care for, and wild animals. This is presented through discussing a collaborative project employing photovoice to explore wildlife conservation politics in a landscape where both humans and animals have the capacity to kill, and be killed, by one another. Through engaging with photographs and text produced over the course of six months by six individuals living in close proximity to Bandipur National Park in Karnataka, India, I explore entangled relations between humans and animals and the production of more-than-human hierarchies. I consider the potential of a visual method for practicing more-than-human geographies as an exploration of affective encounters. This paper contributes to on-going discussions and debates on decolonizing more-than-human geographies. More specifically, I suggest photovoice as one means by which more-than-human geographies can remain critically engaged with and speak out against enactments of injustice and violent legacies of colonialism that reach across species divides.