"Gimme Shelter" (2025)
Shelter veterinary medicine and the stray animal epidemic.
This 2025 project (currently on hold) focuses on the chronic struggles in the companion animal rescue world both inside and outside the shelter environment.
From overcrowded shelters to dumping grounds, "never enough" spay and neuter pop-up clinics to mass adoption events with high return rates, companion animal rescue and shelter veterinary medicine has no shortage of economic, moral and psychological pain points. Historically, the southern and western regions of the United States have held the highest rates of shelter animals relative to their population, with various factors such as socio-economics, cultural outlooks and geographical disposition to climate related natural disasters all playing a part. Shelters also face consistent issues, from inadequate funding to staffing shortages. These layers all contribute to the seemingly impossible task of finding a long term solution to the stray animal epidemic and the inhumane toll it takes on both the animals and the humans working to resolve it.
By telling the story from the animals' point of view using various new camera set-ups and audio recordings (inside cages, kennels and elsewhere) in contrast with those at the human level (see below), my goal is to record visuals that capture the realities acutely felt by stray and shelter animals in a nuanced and unique way. It's also important to me that I show the more graphic images and video that accompany this kind of storytelling, because this is the truth behind the lens. From spay abortion to mandibulectomy to severe neglect, these are just a few examples that I will also be sharing as this project continues to develop. I hope you will look as you are able to.
Scenes from "Gimme Shelter". Clockwise from top left: shelter cat Mikey spends time in an incubator while recovering from respiratory issues, blood is drawn on a shelter dog in triage, shelter staff handle cases in the clinic, a pug with a broken pelvis and injured hind leg lays on a scale inside a mobile vet clinic van, a stray dog eats kibble on the side of a road in the Rio Grande Valley (TX), a few weeks' old kitten extends a paw to a vet tech at an outreach clinic, a chihuahua mix recovers in a cage in the shelter ICU on a rabies hold, a shelter vet holds an amputated section of lower jaw during a mandibulectomy.
Previous Projects:
"Anti-Poaching in Namibia" (2024)
On the ground with Working Dogs for Conservation and the Ministry of Environment & Tourism Namibia (MEFT).
In summer 2024, I embedded with Namibia's first ever K-9 anti-poaching unit, following training exercises and eventually a live operation. Consisting of eight handlers selected from Namibian Special Forces and ten dogs, the unit works tirelessly to combat threats to wildlife, namely endangered black rhino populations, from a widespread poaching network.
From camping in conservancy land to helicopter rides during golden hour to setting up temporary station in the open bush, the chance to follow this work was the opportunity of a lifetime. The bonds between dog and handler were visceral - with just a single look, a scratch behind the ears or toss of a ball, the mutual trust and connection evident and special.
Scenes from training, living and operations with Namibia's first ever K-9 anti-poaching unit. Namibia. Summer 2024.