Rescue Tales

Artist Statement

Rescue Tales is a series of dreams that blends reality with fantasy. They focus on female characters from my reality and the imaginary tales they share with their animal companion. It also explores my personal storyline with animal rescue and the different emotions I’ve experienced with animals throughout my life. The series begins with my two rescued dogs, Josie and Cleo, and I, as we’re drifting off to sleep. It’s a moment in reality that happens quite frequently. Each image that follows is one of my dreams.

When we dream, we are subconsciously living out our conscious desires and concerns. I created this series to explore this concept and bring awareness in a different way to animal rescue. All the animals in this series have been rescued, are up for adoption, or have a compelling story behind their discovery. Each image is accompanied by a caption detailing the name of the animal, the breed, where it was rescued from, by whom, and their story.

All images were photographed digitally and processed in Lightroom and Photoshop. I photographed as many elements as possible in one location in the same lighting conditions, ideally with the animal on site. They were also captured in natural light and some were extensively composited. Using editing software allowed me to blend reality with fantasy and create whimsical effects.