Current events have had an enormous impact on my life. The recent hurricanes in Houston,Texas and Puerto rico deeply saddened me.  During these difficult times, families abandoned their homes for evacuation. Typically, you think of people being affected by hurricanes, but not how pets are affected. To me, a pet is apart of the family. I always assumed evacuating families would bring their pets without question. However, these storms brought attention to how serious animal cruelty is. News outlets showed photographs and videos of animals being left outside tied to trees. This was a concept I could not understand. How could someone leave their pet outside knowing it would die? My artwork showcases the abandonment felt by animals when their owners leave them in solitude.

 

My photograph is from the dog’s perspective. I wanted to show how the dog would feel when he sees his owners leaving him behind. I chose to take my photograph from this point of view to show that the car was driving away. I took it on a dreary, rainy day to add to the overall mood and so you could see the tail lights more clear. My emotion while taking this photo was overall depressed. Even though I knew the dog used in my photo had a loving family, the thought of people leaving these animals behind sickened me.

 

The photographs I took are depressing to look at. They make you wonder why the family is leaving and why the dog is so sad. This was not an easy photo to shoot because animals can't do exactly what you say. Working with animals made it difficult to compose the image.I had to trust the dog would sit in the road and not run away. The photo was taken on a rural street, however many cars went down the street as I was trying to take the photograph. One process I used was holding a treat. I wanted the dog to look at me so you could see the dog’s facial expression as their family was leaving. At one point, the dog actually did get loose during this process. It was not easy, but after multiple attempts I captured the final image.