Image by Ben Stark

If you think the name Nanette Martin sounds familiar but you're not sure where you have heard it before there's actually a number of place it could have been. Nanette is an accomplished photographer with quite a portfolio under her belt. She's conducted several well known documentary projects such as The World Trade Center, Gray Whales, Cerro Grande Fire, and Hurricane Katrina.

It's her humane work with Hurricane Katrina and one other recent project that draws this authors attention.

(Photo by Ben Stark)

To better understand how she got where she is today, and better understand where she's coming from, let's back up a bit and see where Nanette got her start photographing pets.

Once an environmental geologist she got into photography on a serious note in 1996. She enrolled in the Art Institute of Colorado and soon found herself engrossed in the field of photography. She admits to sometimes having spent up to 60 hours a week in the darkroom.

Nanette's first publication was a full page with LIFE , just shortly before her graduation from the art institute. She went on to  work a number of assignments for People Magazine and sold  several photographs published by other big names like Sports Illustrated, Readers Digest and many other widely known.

Seemingly drawn to disasters it was no surprise that Nanette ended up in Baton Rouge Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. But little did Nanette know that her venture to the storm battered South would forever change her life.

Nanette spent  two weeks in the flooded streets of New Orleans photographing and documenting each animal she encountered. She made two return trips to the city streets photographing and documenting every animal she could find. It was during this time Nanette realized what a necessary service she was performing. Her photographs of the lost, lonely, hungry, and scared animals of New Orleans were making a difference. They were giving a new face to the reality of the aftermath, a voice and public presence of those ever loyal pets that had been left behind.

After leaving the South and returning home Nanette couldn't get those images out of her head. The images of all those lost animals. Little did she realize how much good her work was doing. It was Nanette's photographs that was bringing in the letters, the donations, and the potential adopters, to Louisiana's overflowing shelters and rescues. Her work had really made a difference.

After realizing her work really was a major link to helping get animals out of shelters and into forever homes, that Nanette established a 501 (c) 3 group to help shelter animals all over the US.

And so was born Shelter Me Photography.

Their mission : To facilitate and accelerate the adoption process for homeless animals by offering free, professional photography services to animal shelter, rescue and foster organizations throughout the United States.

Their vision: Our vision is have trained SMP photographers stationed throughout the United States to provide regularly scheduled, professional photography services to animal shelter, rescue and foster organizations in their regions.
 

Their values: SMP believes all animals seeking adoption deserve to look their best and therefore does not discriminate based on species or breed (mixed or pure). In doing so, we increase their perceived value and adaptability and come one step closer to changing the way society views them. Our work accomplishes the following objectives:

• Portrays homeless animals as worthy members of the community;
• Puts friendly, familiar faces on homeless animals;
• Increases the perceived value and adaptability of mixed-breed animals;
• Gives greater exposure to rescue and shelter organizations
• Attracting more online traffic to their websites and more foot traffic to their facilities;
• Increases adoption rates, thereby reducing euthanasia rates;
• Encourages community involvement, donations, and support for spay and neuter programs;
• Lessens the emotional, physical and financial burdens of those who work or volunteer in the animal-rescue and -shelter communities;
• Provides a gateway for educating the public about the harsh realities of backyard breeding, puppy mills, baiting dogs, fighting dogs and other types of activities that often lead to animal cruelty;
• Increases awareness of pet overpopulation and the need to spay and neuter; and,
• As shelter populations decrease, funds previously allocated for feeding and euthanasia can be used to improve shelter conditions and overall animal health and welfare, hire additional help at competitive wages and pay veterinary bills and other debts.

Nanette believes, as do many  photographers, that each animal should be portrayed with the best possible representation. That even mutts and strays should be "photographed like a show dog". In the case of animal adoption that means a photographic image that can best portray the personality of each individual pet. And as the saying goes, "a pictures worth a thousand words".

Funding for photographers at already over budget shelters and rescues is a dream. Facilities depend on the service of volunteer photographers to do the job, and many of those photographers are inexperienced at best. Their help is welcomed of course, but their work is sometimes lacking the true umph to get pets noticed.

Just as fast as a good image can bring people in the doors, a bad image can turn just as many away. - Cheryle Dillon, Southeast Missouri Humane Society, Cape Girardeau, Missouri

Nanette figures it takes about $5.00 to photograph each animal, but processing the photographs makes the cost run a little higher. That's a luxury expense that no shelter or rescue can afford. But Shelter Me Photography hopes to change that. It's their goal to someday train and employ (yes I said employ) pet photographers all over the US. To send out those trained photographers to provide professional services for these facilities, at no cost to the facility itself.

Original article published Feb. 21, 2010
Copyright © Gila Todd