Shannon Johnstone’s dog photographs may look like fun portraits of man’s best friend, but they are deadly serious.
“These are not cute pictures of dogs,” Johnstone said. “These are dogs who have been homeless for at least two weeks and now face euthanasia if they do not find a home. Each week I bring one dog from the county animal shelter and photograph him or her at Landfill Park, a former landfill converted into a public park. … However, this landscape offers a metaphor of hope. It is a place of trash that has been transformed into a place of beauty. I hope the viewer also sees the beauty in these homeless, unloved creatures.”
Johnstone is a tenured associate professor at Meredith College in Raleigh. She received a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA in photography from Rochester Institute of Technology.
“Landfill Dogs” has been featured in national and international exhibitions and magazines and was most notably on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer and CNN.com. Her first book, “Landfill Dogs,” came out in November 2015. More information can be found at landfilldogs.com.
“Landfill Dogs,” an exhibition by the Raleigh, North Carolina, artist is on display now through Feb. 25 at the Piedmont College Mason-Scharfenstein Museum of Art in Demorest. Admission is free, and museum hours are 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Monday through Saturday. The museum is located at 567 Georgia Street, Demorest.
For more information, contact director Rebecca Brantley at [email protected] or call 706-894-4201.
