Part of the reason why humans enjoy the company of animals so much is that we feel they can relate to us on an a deep, emotional level. Vincent Lagrange, a photographer based in Antwerp, Belgium, is a big believer that animals experience complex emotions.
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In his photo series Human Animal, Lagrange captures the human-like emotions written on an animal’s face, and expressed in its body language.
It’s the sort of portraiture that humans take of other humans. As Lagrange describes it: “I tried to photograph the animals as humans, depicting their emotion and human-like characteristics in a sombre way.”
Indeed, the dark and solemn ambience of the photos blur the background, prompting us to focus on the ’emotions’ written on the animals’ faces.
This project was inspired by Lagrange’s love for animals — particularly, his cat named Dwiezel.
“Today most people photograph just people,” said Lagrange, “but only a few photograph animals.”
Through the camera lens, dogs, cats, and even reptiles, acquire striking similarities to humans — their usually silly and sleepy faces become full of character and depth.
Needless to say, the process of creating these portraits was no easy feat.
When asked what the hardest part about the project was, the young photographer says it was getting the animals to sit still enough to photograph.
Check out the photographer’s website as well as his Facebook and Behance pages for more amazing pictures.