These cute, up-close dog portraits make me so happy! Minneapolis-based photographer Barbara O’Brien provides pet, animal, and rural lifestyle photographs to advertising agencies, magazines, and book publishing companies. In her series called Dog Face, the artist has brilliantly captured the individual character of all types of dogs by narrowing in on each canine’s face and using a very simple, neutral background.
Each dog has such personality! There are side glances, big yawns, and straight on smiles as each pooch performs for the camera. O’Brien says that from a very young age, she has loved all kinds of animals. Her passion for all things that move makes her very good at connecting with her subjects and says, “I personally audition the animals I work with so you will have the best possible talent for your project.”
O’Brien travels all over the country to provide these charming and friendly portraits for ads and publishing firms. She also has quite the busy home life, living on a working farm with her husband, four sons, a dozen horses, seven sheep, thirty odd chickens, five ducks, three dogs, seventeen cats and what she describes as “three very naughty goats.”
