All images created by and used with permission from Sarolta Ban.
As an artist, you don’t necessarily have to appear in those depressing SPCA/PETA commercials with Sarah McLachlan singing in the background to help the cause of poor, mistreated animals. And you certainly don’t have to donate money to non-profits when you’re barely making enough to pay the bills.
Abandoned and neglected animals need all the help they can get from us humans, it’s true, and it’s definitely an utterly heartbreaking problem (anyone who’s been to an animal shelter can attest to this), but there are other ways to give a little and make a change, no matter how small, without completely taking the fun aspect out of it.
Budapest-based surreal and allegory photographer Sarolta Bán, known for her incredible dreamlike work, proves this with her adorable and quirky project featuring shelter dogs from all over the world. How Help Dogs with Images works is this: people send photos of shelter animals to Sarolta (you can do it yourself by uploading a photo or two at this website – you have until June 30), she turns those regular photos into surreal masterpieces, and she donates $50 to the hosting shelter for every print order she gets from a photo. On top of that, these animals new owners will get a free print of their new friends’ portraits.
Need I say “brilliant”?!
Not only is this project creating and disseminating awareness so these animals can find loving homes, it’s also generously helping our poorly-funded shelters out. And it’s proving to be a complete success, so much so that she is actually considering extending it:
“There is really a few chance for shelter animals to get adopted because they get really few visibility. I just thought that I can try to use what I do to help them. Anyone can upload photos to the project’s page, and some of them I’m using to create surreal montages. The original end date was April 13th, but we extended it until June 30th (and maybe will extend once more) because of the huge interest. It’s a success because of the [lot] people and the media that shared the story; and for out of 10 dogs I’ve made images from, 5 actually got adopted.”
It’s truly an amazing and rare endeavor, and one that should inspire others more. See some of the photos from it after the jump.
You can order Sarolta’s prints now at Vendio.com or send her a photo of an animal from your local shelter at the project’s Facebook page. And don’t forget to check out Sarolta’s amazing images on her website.