In Spain, it is estimated that up to 100,000 hunting dogs are abandoned at the end of the hare coursing season every year. This book documents those dogs that have been rescued and sets them against the locations in Spain where they are typically abandoned: the sides of roads, the ravines and the empty car parks. Shot in a style that references the tone and mood of Velzquez, who painted at a time when these dogs were treated with great respect, Martin Usborne's photographs show both the classical beauty of the animals and the ugliness of their modern situation.
Martin Usborne (b. 1973 in London)is a photographer based in London. From a young age, Usborne experienced a deep emotional affinity with animals of all kind, a fact that is evident in his surprisingly affective portraits of dogs. Usborne studied at the Glasgow School of Art and Edinburgh University. He has had solo exhibitions at the Hackney Museum in London and numerous other galleries in England. In 2009, he was the recipient of the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize. Books of his photography have been published by Kehrer (The Silence of Dogs in Cars, 2012), Nazraeli Press, HoxtonMiniPress, and Anova Books.