The Dogist, a photographer with 2.7M followers on his canine-filled Instagram page, is in Vancouver this weekend snapping photos of local pups to raise awareness against animal testing.
Elias Weiss Friedman, better known by his Instagram handle @thedogist, is a New York City-based photographer known for his portrait-style photos of dogs and captions illuminating the critters' personalities.
"That's my challenge—to make dogs seem like people," he told CTV News. "The image is a formal portrait with direct eye contact. It anthropomorphizes them."
He's in Vancouver in partnership with The Body Shop for their campaign to end animal testing. He'll be taking photos of dogs at Pet-a-Palooza on Sunday in Yaletown and trying to get people to sign The Body Shop's petition against animal testing.
Jennifer Spencer, vice president of marketing and corporate responsibility at the Body Shop, says they're aiming to get eight million signatures on the petition and bring it to the United Nations to get an international convention against animal testing.
"Currently there is no ban against animal testing in Canada," Spencer said, adding that that's something they're hoping to change.
Getting candid with Vancouver's canines
The Friday before Pet-a-Palooza, Weiss Friedman visited the Stanley Park seawall to take some portraits of Vancouver dogs. CTV tagged along.
Weiss Friedman uses knee pads to get down to the dogs' eye level, and brings along a squeaky tennis ball and dog treats to grab their attention for the shot.
"I make it seem like the dogs do know what's happening," he said. "They are posing."
He started The Dogist four years ago after getting laid off from his job. He was inspired by Brandon Stanton's Humans of New York page, and tries to tell a story about each animal.
"We admire dogs because they're so candid in their expressions and they make us see something in ourselves," he said.
While on the seawall, he ran into an Old English Sheepdog named Carl. Weiss Friedman found out Carl was ordered off of Kijiji and arrived at YVR airport in a crate from Saskatoon.
"Carl is now going to be a dog celebrity," his owner said.
She says she follows The Dogist on Instagram, and is "obsessed" with his work.
Weiss Friedman says that nearly all dog owners are familiar with his Instagram account, and that makes him proud.
With a report from CTV's Sarah MacDonald.
