From Gabriel H. Sanchez’s interview with Isa Leshko for BuzzFeed News:
By revealing the dignity of elderly farmed animals, I invite viewers to consider what is lost when these animals are butchered in their youth. Animal products are ubiquitous, yet farm animals themselves are culturally invisible. Meat is marketed in a way that erases the presence of animals. Pig flesh is described as pork; cow flesh, beef. That is by design because it is easier to ignore the ethical implications of consuming animal products if you can forget they came from animals.[…]
My images bring farm animals out of the shadows and encourage people to consider the lives that they lead. I approached these images as portraits because I want viewers to recognize that farm animals are sentient beings with distinct personalities. That doesn’t mean that they are like the anthropomorphic characters in Charlotte’s Web. But they do think and feel.