martin usborne

Looking at Martin Usborne’s collection of photographs, aptly titled “Dogs In Cars”, you experience a range of emotion. Some of the dogs in the photos have a markedly melancholic look in their eyes, while others remain still as a look of sad desperation takes over their expression. Then there are other dogs, who look fearful and aggressive as they protect their beloved owner’s automobile from the stranger holding the camera.

Regardless, you can’t help but feel compassion as you sympathize with dogs who gaze out the window longing, searching for their owners. Some seeming to ask the camera, “What if they never come back?” That question, Usborne explains, is very similar to the question that sparked this inspiring project in the first place.

“I was once left in a car at a young age. I don’t know when or where or for how long, possibly at the age of four, perhaps outside a supermarket, probably for fifteen minutes only. The details don’t matter. The point is that I wondered if anyone would come back. The fear I felt was strong: in a child’s mind it is possible to be alone forever.”