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. In a child’s mind, it is possible to be alone forever.
Around the same age I began to feel a deep affinity with animals - in particular their plight at the hands of humans. I saw a TV documentary that included footage of a dog being put in a plastic bag and being kicked. What appalled me most was that the dog could not speak back. Its muteness terrified me. I should say that I was a well-loved child and never abandoned, and yet it is clear that both these experiences arose from the same place deep inside me: a fear of being alone and unheard.
The images in this series explore that feeling, both in relation to myself and to animals in general. The dog in the car is a metaphor, not just for the way that animals (both domestic and wild) are so often silenced and controlled by humans, but for the way that we so often silence and control the darker parts of ourselves: the fear and loneliness that we would rather keep locked away.
Q&A with Martin Usborne
Q: What are the main themes in your work?
A: I’m really interested – or maybe concerned is a better way of putting it – in the often ‘broken’ relationship between humans and animals. It’s clear that humans and other animals are on a smooth continuum, evolution and science teaches us that.
However, that is not how we always act towards them. All too often we manage, control, silence and master animals, as if they are something disconnected from us, often to devastating effect. I am interested in exploring, through photography, that painful divide - between humans and the rest of the animal world.
Q: Are the images solely representative of how you see the relationship between humans and other animals?
A: I hope that there is room to see a reflection of us in the images too. Like the animals in our lives, often we control and silence parts of ourselves– the sadness, anger or loneliness that we can’t express - and the dog in the car, for example, is a metaphor for that which we lock inside. The way that we treat vulnerable animals can be an indication of how we treat vulnerability in others and also ourselves.
Q: What drew you to the idea of photographing dogs in cars?
A: The idea arose spontaneously and lingered for many years but I thought it ridiculous, so ignored it. But the best ideas are the ones that take root. Finally, I made a few shots. It was only when I saw the first pictures that I realised the emotional power of pictures – how they touched on big themes of loneliness, silence and control – not just for animals but for ourselves
Q: Why specifically choose dogs, and in cars?
A: The dog in the car could just as well be a bird in a cage or a tiger in a zoo or a fish in a tank. It’s about how animals control by human mechanics. But I’ve always loved dogs, since I had my first one as a boy, and dogs show both emotional warmth as well as deep honesty. If a dog is sad, it doesn’t hide it well. Equally, if a dog is angry you know about it and because of this, dogs are a perfect vehicle for exploring those rawer sides of our psyche.
Q: How do you intend people to react to your photographs?
A: As they wish! I’m not trying to push a moral stance. I’m interested in representing the divide and letting people respond accordingly – some people will laugh at my work, other’s will be moved. Either is fine.
Q: Who are your main influences and where do you draw your inspiration?
A: I am indebted to three artists in particular for inspiring the look and feel of these images. The sense of isolation and longing draws from Edward Hopper and his paintings of solitary figures (often seen gazing through a window), the sense of other-worldliness from the twilight mood of Gregory Crewdson’s work in Beneath the Roses and the palette and lighting is inspired by Todd Hido’s beautiful nightscapes in House Hunting. I take inspiration from wherever I can however. It may be an advert in a magazine, a snapshot I’ve taken accidentally, or a book I’ve read. I don’t want to list them all in case I ruin the effect.
Q: What tools and processes do you use to create your work?
A: The dogs and location and cars are carefully sourced and combined to evoke the right mood. Nearly all the images were taken at dusk or dawn, never in broad daylight, often with multiple lights. The question I always asked myself after taking an image was not: Does this look good? But rather: Does this feel right? I primarily use digital but some of the dogs in cars series for example was shot on 5x4.
Q: What are you driven by?
A: A desire to understand I suppose. I want to understand myself and to understand my relationship to all animals. But I’d be lying if I didn’t admit much of this has come from a pain inside, from dark feelings of being disconnected and an overwhelming desire to reconnect. I see the separation of animals from humans as an echo from my own separation that I felt from a young age.
About Martin Usborne
Martin Usborne lives and works in London. He trained in architecture and 3D animation before becoming a photographer. Usborne is interested in the fractured relationship between humans and animals. In particular, the way in which we control and silence the animals in our lives. There is a strong psychological component to his work and the animal subjects within it can be taken to represent parts of our psyche - the hidden, rawer aspects of ourselves that we don’t like to express. Despite the emotional intensity, much of Usborne’s work has a subtle humour.
About the book
Title: The Silence of Dogs in Cars
Photographer: Martin Usborne
Publisher: Kehrer Verlag
Texts by Susan McHugh/Martin Usborne
