Last Updated on 02/18/2017 by Chris Gampat
All images by Isaac Alvarez. Used with permission.
The most interesting portraiture work can include elements of humor, unusual concepts, provocative ideas, and meaningful messages the photographer intends to get across. Isaac Alvarez successfully blended all of these in his series of beautiful portraits featuring different breeds of dogs with their respective owners.
Isaac Alvarez has gotten sick and tired of people judging his dogs just because they are Pitbulls. Taking this as a motivation, he subsequently wanted to do a series of photographs to promote the awareness for rescue dogs and to tell a strong message that all breeds are good and their personalities are largely dependent on how they were raised. Isaac has created a photo series showing portraits of dogs and their owners called “Reflection of Me”. Afterall, after spending so much time with its owner, the dog does mimic and in some ways become a reflection of its owner.
Isaac gathered his own friends who are dog owners and he decided to execute his project in a unique way. He asked the dog owners to wear specific attire that matched their dog’s personalities, effectively adding layers of character to the portraits. The resulting images showed the owners not only in their own costumes and attires but also acting out their jobs or characters, be it a surgeon, a business man, or a boxer. Furthermore, his playful photo editing process of merging the dog’s head with its owner’s body was both visually stunning as well as successful in sending a bold message that the dog and its owner are in fact similar in more ways than we can imagine. The bond between a dog and its owner is indeed a special one.
To find out more about Isaac Alvarez and his photography work you may visit his website here.