'Nice To Meet You' is a poignant portrait series of abandoned dogs, shot by London-based photographer Martin Usborne::
I remember meeting a stranger on a sunny day whilst I was suffering from depression.
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| Photo :: Martin Usborne |
'Nice to meet you, how are you?', said the stranger
'I'm fine', I replied.
I wanted to howl.
What happens to those raw, painful parts
of ourselves we hide away? The anger, confusion, uncertainty, hope? And
what strategies do we use to hide these parts of ourselves? Politeness,
arrogance, speed, disinterest?
Each image in this series is a portrait of a
dog photographed through a material or substance: a wet pane of glass,
faint smoke, dense material, bleeding light. Nearly all of the dogs are
abandoned, untrained, often aggressive. One is a wolf. (Every dog was
carefully handled and protected in the process). The images are titled
with everyday phrases that so often hide subtexts.
As with the previous series, The Silence of
Dogs in Cars, canines are used here to reflect that unspoken,
instinctive side of our nature. In my own experience it is dogs – along
with some other animals – that have the ability to communicate certain
feelings most directly even though they have no words.
But the series is also about the
voicelessness of animals, about their hidden pains and silent needs that
to many people are not so apparent. (With special thanks to Jake Churchill and Prokopi Constantinou)
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| Source :: Martin Usborne |