A day in the life of the ALiberation group

I can't believe that I had my last class today. I'm so relieved and at the same time it seems that everything happened fast. Well, I can say that I had exactly one semester because it was just three months of classes. I still have two final exams in May but I just need to study at home. I really like to study, like to go to the university and enjoy having to read all the academic stuff. So, I'm really happy to say that I did well in this first period of the Master.

Today I had the feedback about my Photojournalism assignments and I'm very happy to say that I got an "A" in the final one, that I loved to do. We had to choose between three proposed themes and one of them was "A day in the life of..." and I decided to photograph the vegan/animal rights Irish group ALiberation. They do a demo basically every Saturday in the city center and now they are fighting against the fur factories in Ireland. I stayed there for hours and did more than a hundred pictures. It was very nice, I already know most of them, so it was good to be doing something related to my choices, to my values. For the final project we should choose at least 6 photos and present them as a book or a magazine article.

My final project:






The words:

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The voice of the animals in Dublin


In the last years the groups that fight for the animal rights are increasing around the world and campaigns to spread the vegetarianism and veganism started to be more mainstream, with some celebrities embracing the cause. The Irish group Aliberation is a group based in Dublin that is trying to be the voice of the animals around here. The group focuses its aims in informing the public about the respect for the rights that all animals – human or nonhuman – have: “The right not to be murdered; the right to freedom, the right to bodily integrity and the right not to be considered property”.

The group prefers to work with one campaign each time to have the opportunity to dedicate 100% to it. Right now they are promoting the fight against the animal fur industry in Ireland. Their aim is not an easy one: they want the abolition of the Irish fur factory farms. In times of economic crisis, the group is facing some protests against their protests that happens basically every Saturday afternoon in front of the store Barnardo Furriers (the oldest fur shop in Ireland), located in the city center. The group has also to do with the Gardaì many times, even when they are doing nothing wrong or illegal. Their purpose is to talk to people and get signatures for some petitions. It is freedom of expression, it is freedom of information.

The work they are doing for the animals seems to attract a lot of people in Dublin, that agree with the actual campaign. During one afternoon with the group it's possible to see different types of people going to the table to join the cause: teenagers, old people, families, Irish or non-Irish, vegetarians, vegans or omnivores. There are no stereotypes – as many people use to think – about the ones that believe in the animal rights. People that have in common the opinion that animals shouldn't be treated as object, especially when it is just too promote the (cruel) fashion industry.


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I will make a set with more photographs soon at my Flickr page soon too!