Maureen O’Connor is a fine art photographer living in Toronto and is a graduate of OCAD.
Maureen is a life-long animal lover and these photographs are produced with the cooperation of local sanctuaries, many of these animals are rescues from fur farms and others are non-releasable wildlife.
The animals in these images were brought and photographed onsite to the location in the photograph, several of the locations are homes in Toronto pre-redevelopment.
By photographing Canadian animals in abandoned and crumbling domestic architecture, Maureen O’Connor raises questions about how nature and the built environment intersect.
She sees these spaces as transformative, evoking memory and showing the beauty and fragility of the animals and the architecture. We are invited to cross the threshold and imagine new narratives where the natural world and the domestic world meet, and consider how this informs our identity in a country defined by both its wild landscape and its orderly cities.