Unspoken Portraits of Abandoned DOGS!

Titled “I'm fine” from the photographic series Nice to meet you | photo: Martin Usborne

Survival is a prime instinct that is innate in dogs. In the human world, our own survival is sometimes masked by our own expressions of “Politeness, arrogance, speed,” and ”disinterest,” says British photographer Martin Usborne. In his latest photographic series titled “Nice to Meet You,” Usborne takes us into the unspoken world of abandoned dogs with these avant-garde images.

Titled “I love you” from the photographic series Nice to meet you | photo: Martin Usborne

Nice to Meet You is Martin's latest follow-up to his last series titled The Silence of Dogs in Cars featured dogs to reflect the “unspoken, instinctive side of our nature” which garnered him worldwide acclaim. According to his website, Usborne poses the question of “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?” 

The startling images of these canines are reminders of our own selves and the parts we choose to stow away. Each of the portraits in the series was photographed through different types of material to achieve this look: a wet pane of glass, faint smoke, dense material and bleeding light as he describes.

Titled “Nice to meet you” from the photographic series Nice to meet you | photo: Martin Usborne

Titled “Well done” from the photographic series Nice to meet you | photo: Martin Usborne

Titled “It was a long time ago” from the photographic series Nice to meet you | photo: Martin Usborne

The following quote is taken from an excerpt from the series:

I remember meeting a stranger on a sunny day whilst I was suffering from depression.

‘Nice to meet you, how are you?’, said the stranger.

‘I’m fine’, I replied.

I wanted to howl.

Titled “I also work at the bank” from the photographic series Nice to meet you | photo: Martin Usborne

Titled “I agree” from the photographic series Nice to meet you | photo: Martin Usborne

Titled “It's OK” from the photographic series Nice to meet you | photo: Martin Usborne

Titled “You look great” from the photographic series Nice to meet you | photo: Martin Usborne

The remarkable part of these portraits is that they are of mostly abandoned dogs that are untrained and described as “often aggressive.” The titles for each image are just as unusual as they are of everyday common phrases that Usborne to “so often hide subtexts.”

Above all, he describes his series as about the “voicelessness of animals” and “their hidden pains and silent needs that to many people are not so apparent.”

SOURCE: MartinUsborne.com