A photographer captures dogs at the beginning and end of their lives, and the results are a beautiful tribute to man's best friend
Gabbi Shaw
- Animal photographer Amanda Jones started the Dog Years Project in 2006.
- She photographed dogs as puppies, and then caught up with them years later.
Amanda Jones is a photographer who has been capturing photos of dogs for 25 years.
Jones, who is based in the US, has been interested in photography since she was a teenager, although she had no blueprint for how to turn it into a career. After studying photography at Ithaca College in New York, she "faced the difficult task of creating my own job," she wrote on her website.
"I began my work as a dog photographer with very little knowledge. I didn't know how to interact with clients, how to market my work, how to reach the people that wanted what I could offer," she wrote.
But as her Dog Years project shows, she learned how to capture their characters. Katy Koo, pictured above, was photographed 10 years apart — we think her gray hair makes her look very distinguished.
"My work with dogs began when I grew tired of photographing people," she told Insider.
"I would always hear, 'Oh, I look horrible,' or 'Is my face really that wrinkly?' It got tiresome," she said.
Eleanor the pug, seen here, also rocks gray fur, though her photos were only taken six years apart.
"She aged beautifully!" Jones wrote.
Jones was inspired to create the Dog Years Project after her own dog, Lily, a long-haired dachshund, died and she realized she had photos from every stage of Lily's life.
"I pulled four together and created a memorial card for her," she said. "I received a very strong reaction to the imagery. I realized I could do this for my clients. That's when the series began."
In this set, taken eight years apart, only one of these adorable boxers made it to the latter photo session.
After getting a strong reaction from people who viewed the images of Lily, she launched the project and captured dogs, like Schumacher, at different stages of their lives.
You can really see how much life Schumacher has experienced.
Whether old or young, "all dogs are wonderful to work with," Jones said.
However, "each age has their issues" too, she said.
"Young dogs are tricky because their attention span is so short and they are all over the place. They never stop moving," Jones said, though she added that senior dogs can also be tricky "because oftentimes they cannot see or hear."
This means that they're usually looking down, or they don't do a classic dog head tilt because they can't hear.
But Jones feels a kinship with senior dogs.
"As I move into my older age, I am losing my eagle-eye focusing abilities. It is harder for me to get up and down off the floor to shoot," she wrote on her website. "Despite the differences, however, there is a sweetness in the way I remember that frantic need I felt as a teenager, that desire to become what I knew I was meant to be."
"I love photographing dogs because each one is different," she said. "I love discovering what is unique about each dog and capturing that."
The Dog Years Project — which she turned into a book celebrating people's friendships with their dogs — is a way for owners to honor their pups and the passing of time, while also keeping a record of how their furry friends have aged.
"A senior dog walks with confidence, each step a show of acquired knowledge, each wag a sign of a life well lived. Like that of the dogs I know so well, this trust I have in myself lightens the future; it softens the edge that makes looking onward so terrifying," Jones wrote.
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