EYE TO EYE

Photography

Belgian photographer Paul Croes left models and magazines behind to photograph dogs, and never looked back.

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EYE TO EYE

WORDS BY Jessa Shields

After 15 years in fashion photography, Paul Croes’ career suddenly changed direction when he met a particular dog. “I suffered from a burnout,” the Belgian-based photographer said. “Then, at that time, I did a free gig shooting a big white Borzoi. This dog posed so elegantly and beautifully in the pictures. I realised that for dog photography, I didn’t need the best hair stylists and make up artists on set to get the perfect shots. All I need is the dog owner and the dog.” This fateful shoot encouraged Croes and his wife Inge Nelis to set up their animal photography business, ‘Behind Eyes’. “The eyes are the window to the soul, and that’s what I’m trying to capture in my portraits,” Croes said.

While Croes loves to work with all breeds of dog, he admits that the podenco is one of the most interesting breeds to photograph. “Of all dogs, the podenco has the most muscles in their face so with every picture they show me another expression. I like photographing long hair breeds too because of the changing movement of their hair in every shot.” The studio photographer dreams of one day publishing a coffee table book with some of his best animal portraits and stories to accompany them, but for now, Croes knows that his decision to move from fashion photography to animal photography was the right one, “I have always loved dogs and working with them makes me happy every day. There’s often a moment on a shoot with a dog when I really click with them. Dogs have a truly healing effect on humans.”

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All images courtesy of Paul Croes/Inge Nelis.
paulcroes.be
You can follow Behind Eyes here.

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