When I first learned of David Reyes‘ “dog lifestyle photography,” I wondered whether I would be confronted with the typical pet photo tropes. What I found instead was a world in which dogs and humans desperately love and need one another, a nuanced look into an interspecies relationship that has been thousands of years in the making and yet still defies science.
We can examine and study our interactions with dogs, notice how they respond to us differently than they respond to other animals, but the how and why still eludes us. That mystery is part of the magic, and David and his website, Fox Rain, capture exactly that.
Citing the passion and love that owners have for their dogs as his inspiration, David thinks of his work with clients as less like photo sessions and more like “an extended play session where pet and owner can have an excuse to spend some quality time together.” He carefully turns his focus on the “little things in that relationship” between human and dog, “from chin scratches and head pets to licked faces and obedient sit-stays.”
What really impressed me is the way David sometimes steps far away from his subjects, letting them exist in their grand spaces, elevating the relationship to something cosmic and intrinsic to the fabric of the universe — as if, without the human-dog bond, it would all unravel.
Photos used with permission.
