Photographer Finds Human Expressions in Pooch Portraits

People who love their dogs treat them as members of the family. Their expressions are priceless, and sometimes even take on human characteristics. The husband and wife photography duo of Alexander Khokhlov and Veronica Ershova — designer and retouching expert — set out to show just that with a series of portraits, called “The Dog Show.”

The collection received the 2017 Silver International Photography Award from the Prix De La Photographie Paris contest. Photos show our canine best friends displaying a range of human expressions — sharing a wink, a smile, and even laughter.

The couple, who shoots their photos in Moscow, began with a series of portraits featuring dogs with their lookalike owners, in a series called “Dogs Alike,” which led to “The Dog Show” portraits. They became inspired by their own English bulldog Audrey (below) who was their first model, showing her winning smile.

It wasn’t long before friends and neighbors were helping them find even more interesting breeds with human expressions.

“Most of them were represented by different Russian dog kennels. We were inspired by the first results and decided to continue shooting. This year we had a lot of great photo sessions with amazing people and their wonderful animals,” Khokhlov wrote to Your Daily Dish.

Natural human expressions aside, getting a dog to pose for the camera was not as easy as these photos made it look. The one thing the couple tried to avoid was making the portraits look too much like “passport photos,” which proved to be a challenge.

“Three people worked hard to make the dog sit nice and straight and look at the camera. It was me, my wife Veronica, and the dog owner or trainer. In most cases, dogs were motivated by food, but we had dogs that perfectly posed without additional motivation due to excellent training,” Khokhlov wrote.

Of course, not all dogs are bred to be natural models, such as the Staffordshire bull terrier, Blake.

“He was afraid of flashes, and almost all the time we spent on persuasion and attempts to make him stay on a table. Each flash made him run to the other corner of the studio and hide under the table. This is a small but strong dog, so we failed in our efforts. I decided to remove flashes and use constant light. The dog was already tired at that moment, and the warm light of the lamp made him relax, so I made a nice shot in a right moment,” Khokhlov wrote.

The flashless moment was captured with Blake looking as if he was laughing.

Another tough client was a basset hound named Freyby, who, on a good day, is not known to obey commands on cue and can be very stubborn. This photoshoot was no exception, which Khokhlov discovered when even the dog’s treats wouldn’t coax him to cooperate.

“The owner got his favorite treats, but they did not help much. The dog constantly ran away from the right point and turned away from us. After another unsuccessful attempt, we decided to give the dog a rest, and Veronica decided to eat a banana. Freyby began to beg for the banana, which turned out as one of his favorite delicacies. The look that you see in the picture is aimed precisely at the piece of banana that he wants to eat so much,” he wrote.

Freyby looks pleadingly as if he’s saying, “Please ma’am, may I have some more?”

“The Dog Show” project is so popular that people are writing with proposals to shoot the breeds that have not yet been photographed. Khokhlov and Ershova have not been shooting dogs for a very long time, but the demand is there to continue sessions until the end of the year. Everyone wants their dog displaying its best human expression to get a shot — literally!

“Veronica and I started working with dogs only this year. But we are dog owners and were interested in various breeds from childhood. For us, shooting dogs is a great way to have fun, to relieve stress, and be filled with positive emotions. Of course, all pets are different, but this is the main interest — to catch the perfect emotion from any dog,” Khokhlov wrote.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at “The Dog Show” photo shoot.