Harlock is a dog that was maltreated and abused for many years before being taken away from his abusers by the animal protection services. After spending a few months in Padua's (Italy) animal shelter, he was adopted by Illaria - his human loving companion. This is the photo-story of Harlock
The moment we met at the park to start the photo session Illaria told me right away to not come to close to Harlock, because he is scared of basically anyone that isn't her, so i mounted my tele-lens (the Sigma 50-150 2.8 OS) and gave Harloc all the space he needed.
Even though I photographed him from far away (always more than 6-7 meters) you can see by the position of his ears and his wide-opened eyes that he was preoccupied about my presence.
Slowly he would let me come closer.
And after some time he felt at his ease enough to start playing.
After shooting in the park we moved to my studio. My studio is my living room so it naturally isn't such a huge place. Even though while shooting outside we gradually became friends, when he entered the studio he was slightly preoccupied about the lack of possibility of keeping a distance.
After 5-10 minutes of photographing him from a distance, he got up and came to me for some cuddles which was really touching because as Illaria told me he would come into physical contact with only a few people in the last year that he was with her. Now we were friends and i could come close to him to take photos from any distance I wanted.
Potographing Harlock was one of the most beautiful experiences in my dog-photography project because it showed how in the end there's always hope and how with the help of trust, love always wins over fear.
