TUCSON, AZ.- The University of Arizona Center for Creative Photography (CCP) will open “Animality: 100 Years of Photographs” on Aug. 8, an exhibition exploring the many kinds of relationships between humans and animals across a century of picture-making.
The exhibition runs through Dec. 12 and is free and open to the public for visitors of all ages. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10a-4:30p.
Drawing on more than 100 photographs and archival objects from CCP’s permanent collection, “Animality” features nearly 300 animals across 30 species — plus hundreds of bats — captured in a wide range of photographic formats by a diverse group of photographers. The exhibition is organized around 11 thematic groupings addressing human-animal interactions, human and animal expressions, and animal welfare.
“Animality” was created in collaboration with seven University of Arizona honors students who participated in professors Netzin and Dieter Steklis’ fall 2025 course, Human and Animal Interrelationships, in the School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences. Working with CCP Chief Curator Rebecca Senf, PhD, the students reviewed more than 140 photographs from the collection, selected images around themes of their own choosing and wrote the exhibition labels that accompany their picks.
“It’s a really wide range of ways of photographers thinking about presenting animals,” Senf said. “The pictures are delightful. There are funny ones and cute ones and such a wide range of animals. However, the exhibition also touches on more serious issues including the ethical treatment of animals.”
Among the photographers represented in “Animality” are several of the most significant figures in 20th-century American photography, including Garry Winogrand, W. Eugene Smith, Andreas Feininger, John Gutmann, Louise Dahl-Wolfe and Rosalind Fox Solomon. The exhibition also features a dedicated presentation on Ylla (Camilla Koffler, 1911-1955), the defining animal photographer of the mid-20th century, whose work for magazines including Life brought a new warmth and intimacy to the genre. Ylla’s archive is held by CCP, and the exhibition includes a slideshow of 100 of her photographs alongside archival material from her career.
The seven honors students who helped curate the exhibition are:
Dylan J. Brown (’28) ... Nursing
Maya Cervantes (’28) ... Biology: Biomedical science
Emma Charles (’27) ... Physiology and medical sciences
Charles Elliott (’27) ... Optical engineering
Emily Hogg (’28) ... Nursing
Emma Mireles (’27) ... Veterinary science
Shay Parchem (’28) ... Biology with a biomedical sciences emphasis; music with violin performance emphasis
A second cohort of honors students — Derek Dewyer, Riley Weltmann, Lucy Waddell, Ariana Laguna-Garcia and Karsten Yin — contributed selections that will be shared virtually in the gallery.
