Portraits of the Overlooked Black Dogs at Animal Shelters

Black dogs are commonly overlooked at animal shelters. They’re the last to be adopted and the most likely to be euthanized. Photographer Shaina Fishman has taken it upon herself to shine light on this problem and raise awareness, hope, and love for these dogs.

“Black dogs are just as loving and just as playful but shelter staff can have a hard time photographing them,” says Fishman. “A good photograph is crucial to creating interest for a potential adopter.

“While I can’t take great photos of every black dog in a shelter I can bring awareness to the problem and with this series show that black dogs are
stunningly beautiful.”

Fishman recruited 14 black rescue dogs for a photo shoot and provided the portraits to their rescue. A single Instagram photo of one of the groups of puppies led to all of them being quickly adopted.

Here’s a video with some video portraits Fishman shot at the same time:

You can find more of Fishman’s work on her website, Facebook, and Instagram. Back in 2015, we shared a different project in which Fishman shot portraits of animal shelter cats wearing hats.