The 'Nice to Meet You' Series by Martin Usborne is made up of a distorted canine portrait on one side and a written phrase opposite it. One of Usborn's favorite subjects is to explore the relationships between humans and other animals, as previously seen in his 'The Silence of Dogs in Cars' series.
For the series, Usborne recalls a time he suffered from depression and communicates how this inner struggle can be masked by phrases like "I'm fine." To show the masking of these layers, each dog is photographed through a veil -- like a pane of glass, fog, or smoke. Usborne used feral, untrained dogs and in one case, a wolf to communicate the intensity emotion that lies beneath the surface of someone suffering from depression.
Depressed Dog Portraits
Martin Usborne's 'Nice to Meet You' Series Shows Sad Dogs
Trend Themes
1. Canine Mental Health Awareness - Creating awareness for mental health in pets, opening up opportunities for products and services to help pets with mental health disorders and ailments.
2. Artistic Animal Depictions - Using art and photography to portray the lesser-known emotions that animals exhibit, bringing attention to the cause and raising funds for the well-being of domestic and wild animals.
3. Merging Animal and Human Emotions - Showcasing the emotional similarities between animals and humans through expressive photography, inventing new avenues for research for psychological studies in animals and their behavior patterns.
Industry Implications
1. Animal Welfare - Raising awareness and supporting animal welfare through creative art forms and emotional depictions of animals, leading to innovative product and service opportunities for animal shelters and pet care services.
2. Fine Art Photography - Incorporating emotional value in the art form of photography, yielding a new line and demand for art collectors and photography enthusiasts.
3. Mental Health - Spreading awareness about mental health, presenting an opportunity for developing more alternative treatment options for mental health disorders in both animals and humans.