Jodie Grillmeier, The Gaze Returned (LANDSCAPE & ENVIRONMENT 2026)

On the seventh floor of an abandoned shopping centre in Bangkok, an orangutan looks directly through the concrete and metal bars of its enclosure. We are used to looking at animals in zoos, often without considering the act itself. But what happens when the animal looks back? In this encounter, the orangutan looked directly at me, and I questioned my position as the photographer. I was not simply photographing an animal; we were both participants in the encounter.

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