Unmasked: notes on Joan de la Malla’s ‘The Sad Clown’

In this brief analysis of Joan de la Malla’s photograph ‘The Sad Clown’, winner of the photojournalism prize at the 2018 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, I focus on how the image sets off a series of movements towards and away from the common trope of anthropomorphism, exploring how it works to expose, confound and then re-install this familiar device.