Image source: Lynn Terry

Lynn Terry is a professional photographer in St. Louis Missouri. Her images often have an amazing fun retro-vibe. It was her love of everything vintage as well as anthropomorphic imagery that led her to put dogs in a photo booth…

“I have a collection of old photographs from the early 1900s of people with their pit bulls and it inspired me to generate an old fashion series,” Terry told iHeartDogs.com. “I needed a concept for a calendar I was working on for a local pit bull rescue group, Mutts-n-Stuff. I put two of the pit bulls that were friends in my rig of a booth and they started looking at each other and licking each other and seemingly laughing at each other in quite the same fashion as we humans do when we cheese it up for a photo booth. I knew instantly I had generated something interesting.”

The first two dogs that started the concept were rescues through Mutts-n-Stuff, one of the local rescues for which I volunteer. Tucker and Miss Petunia are their names. Tucker was an owner surrender because he would potty in his crate. It was discovered he had allergies and after being adopted, went on to get his Canine Good Citizen title and become a therapy dog, even mentoring other would-be therapy dogs. Miss Petunia was also an owner surrender. She was dropped off at a high kill shelter due to a broken leg. She also has gone on to get her Canine Good Citizen title and is a therapy dog, star in the play “Oliver” and mentor pups too!

While her pictures started to gain momentum online, she decided to further the concept. Her own dog had passed away, and the recent loss was a catalyst for a Valentine’s Day campaign where people could get photos in the booth with their furry loved ones.

“A particular set of pit bulls came that day and upon editing the photos, I knew right away we may have captured a moment even more fantastic than the first series,” Terry explains. “I posted them online and within 24 hours my email was blowing up and these images had gone viral. I was contacted by agents and book publishers and so began the genesis of the book.”

Bumper is a pit bull who came from a not-so-great area of St. Louis, A gentleman tried to fight her, but she wouldn’t engage. A little boy lured her away and got the dog to Mutts n Stuff, a local pit bull rescue. Her new owners had her for about 1.5 years when they decided they were ready to foster again. They were matched with another pit bull, Willis, and then six months old, who had been part of of a 500-dog fighting ring that was raided in the summer of 2009. It was the largest pit bull fighting bust in US history. Willis was born two weeks after the rescue.

“It was a lot of fun photographing all these different breeds of dogs,” she says. “They each brought their own personalities. I tried my best to capture this. I may have to say, I am still partial to the bully breeds. Those big heads and mouths just make for some of the funniest faces.”

Terry just finished a campaign, “Consider a Shelter Pet,” with Purina. And is now tackling a whole new species in the booth: Cats!

“Lord help me! It’s a different kind of shoot but going way better that I thought I could. We shall see where that takes me,” she laughs.