Isabella La Rocca González is an artist, writer, and activist.
Latest by this author
Photographs, storytelling, poetry, and well-documented research unveil the immense suffering, ecological devastation, worker exploitation, and economic injustice caused by the animal agricultural industry.
Isabella La Rocca González is an artist, writer, and activist based in the United States. As the daughter of immigrants, she strives to reconcile values from her Indigenous Mexican roots with her European heritage. Awards for her work include the Ferguson Grant from the Friends of Photography.
Her photographs have been exhibited internationally including a solo show at the Center for Photography in Woodstock. Her creative nonfiction works have been published in various outlets. Her screenplay, Fugue 9 was chosen as a finalist for the 2008 Sundance Screenwriters Lab. She received her B.A. in Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania, and her M.F.A in Photography from Indiana University.
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Factory Farms
An Exposé of the Realities of the Animals’ Lives
Co-authors: Marc Bekoff | Psychology Today | December | 2024
Bekoff reviews Censored Landscape: The Hidden Reality of Farming Animals and finds it a testament to the profound impact of art in unveiling the hidden truths of our world. Among the most disturbing unseen truths concerns the mistreatment of so-called food animals who, despite being highly sentient, feeling beings, are treated as if they are unfeeling objects whose only purpose in life is to provide food for humans.
WEAD | September | 2015
La Rocca Gonzalez combines photographs with poetry and statistics to reveal the hidden world of animal agriculture, framed by a feminist perspective.
Publications by this author
The Hidden Reality of Farming Animals
Lantern Publishing & Media | November | 2024
Censored Landscapes is a compelling long-term photographic project that unveils the hidden reality of animal agriculture. Photographs, essays, poetry, and research together tell a factual story about the most abusive industry of the 21st century.
Isabella La Rocca González’s lens captures the haunting beauty of landscapes that portray the animal agricultural industry. A number displayed with each image represents the lives imprisoned within the facility, drawing attention to the magnitude of suffering behind the banal exteriors. Portraits of nonhuman animals who have been confined in such facilities are emblematic of the vast number of animals whose individuality, sentience, and beauty are obliterated by the industry.
Censored Landscapes maintains a lyrical quality through evocative photographs, poetry, and personal narrative. The project also provides a robust basis in verifiable facts and scientific research. Readers are encouraged to confront the intricate web of connections between animal agriculture, animal suffering, environmental devastation, worker exploitation, human health, economic political structures, and social justice. This book is a call to action, a revelation of the invisible, and an opportunity to see, feel, and make a difference.Media by this author
Interview
Isabella discusses how the photographs she took after a rescue of thousands of hens in Turlock, California became the inspiration for her book Censored Landscapes. She and Hope Bohanec discuss how farming animals is a colonial import, the myth of grass-fed and other humane hoax labels, and the importance of photography in telling a story in a vivid and authentic way.
Interview | November | 2024
Isabella La Rocca González is an artist and activist based in the United States. Her work is part of a long tradition in art and photography: to bring to light and find beauty in the disregarded, hidden, or unconscious.
As a first-generation American, she strives to reconcile values from her Indigenous Mexican roots with her European heritage. Her photographs have been exhibited internationally, including a solo show at the Center for Photography in Woodstock, NY. Her creative nonfiction works have been published in various venues, including the Women Eco Artist Dialog Magazine and the Everything from Nothing Journal. She received her BA in fine arts from the University of Pennsylvania, and her MFA in Photography from Indiana University.
After thirty years teaching art and photography on the post-secondary level, she has left academia to devote herself full-time to her art practice and to growing a native pollinator garden.Interview | September | 2023
Veganism is not just restricted to following a certain kind of diet. It is more than that, it is a lifestyle. Similarly, vegan art promotes adopting veganism as a way of life. Millions of animals are slaughtered and tortured to satisfy our cravings and desires. It is easy to say that you love animals, but practicing that love is where the real struggle starts. Join us, in this beautiful conversation with Isabella La Rocca González, an artist, writer, and activist based in the United States.
