You’re in for a treat with Ella Pavlides’ photo series on Mexico City’s unsung heroes – dog walkers

It’s hard enough to take good photos of people, but imagine trying to take quality photographs of multiple dogs, at once – on film. That’s what south London based-photographer Ella Pavlides has done with a new project that showcases Mexico City’s unsung heroes, dog walkers. Apparently, Mexico City is a pet’s world, we just live in it. There are numerous dogs and a lot of dogwalkers, something that Ella noticed immediately on her first visit. After meeting art director Rosie Bonnar, who she worked with together on a menswear editorial, the pair decided to hit two birds with one stone and shoot the two stories in tandem – with Rosie’s ground level knowledge as a resident of Mexico City to help inform the documentary project.

“It was tough shooting dogs on film, especially on my medium format camera, which is big and cumbersome and certainly not geared for lots of moving, excitable pups,” says Ella. “I had to shoot a lot of rolls to get something good!” Ella’s process was simple; she spent a few mornings visiting the park to meet dog walkers who frequent it, looking for characters who would be interesting to shoot. The main hurdle was that Ella doesn’t speak Spanish so she had to bring a Spanish-speaking friend with her. “Approaching people to ask to shoot them was nerve-wracking, especially when some people didn’t understand the sentiment behind why I wanted to photograph them. For some, it seemed strange that I’d want to photograph something as regular and daily as their job walking dogs.”

Ella practiced awareness of being in a foreign country, she strayed away from simple voyeurism and moved towards a genuine love for this tucked away culture. As a photographer, she found an obligation towards capturing beauty in overlooked moments. “My favourite photo is the man standing in the throng of dogs, shot from below on a wide angle lens, he looks proud and his dogs each have their own character, you get a sense of the tangled chaos of walking that many dogs at once,” says Ella. You can really see a tenderness between man’s best friend and man himself, a pure connection that is caught with purpose in Ella’s photographs. “I saw that they were all big softies at heart. Seeing their hearts revealed was special.”

Like many creatives, Ella feels concern over the rise of artificial intelligence in art and finds her duty as a photographer to be important. Capturing what is true, and not generated from the excesses of existing images, is paramount, especially when it comes to documenting the immediate communities and niché interests of other cultures. In her own work, she creates dream-like qualities that she feels could be misinterpreted as AI, but in these photographs, the reality of the dog walkers and their love for our canine friends is unmistakable. “I really enjoyed stepping out of my comfort zone and shooting a strictly documentary portrait series,” says Ella. Don’t say it around the dogs, but this series is a real T-R-E-A-T.