JOE HERTLER PHOTO & FILM

for us humans, meaning is something that must be formed and created. our pets, however, seem to have figured it out without trying:

to be present,
to love without condition,
to be fully satiated by eating one type of food,
to run circles and then sleep in the sun,
to run some more, to share our homes, to share our beds.

the lives of our pets are short. possibly their only fault.

like us, they never consented to their existence. we all just show up one day and are asked to do our best in a universe that doesn't seem to care too much about our feelings or our comfort. and yet here we are, sharing a home with another species, forming together wordless languages, and finding in each other something the universe forgot to provide on its own.

the bond between human and animal is sacred. no transaction, no agenda. just two creatures, like two lights in a dark tunnel, who found each other and decided to stay. to love an animal is to accept that you will someday be forced to say goodbye.

my entire life has been dedicated to art-making. photography is unique in that it doesn't quite feel like creating art, but rather finding the art inherent within all things.

for a long time it remained a passion project, an extension of the same exploration required to write songs and make music. but it wasn't until i started photographing the pets of my family and friends that something clicked.

i looked at what i was capturing and thought, "this is what i should be doing with the medium." not because it's easy (it's not), not because i adore sweet precious fluffy critters (i do), or because the subjects hold still (they don't).

it's because the stakes are real. the brevity of their lives. the brevity of our own. these moments are utterly finite. the light won't always be there, and neither will they.

pets feel like an admission from god himself:

"hey, i get it.
life wasn’t intended to be easy.
so here's a dog.
here's a cat.
for you to care for.
for you to share your life with.
a companion that makes null:
your fears, failures, and imperfections,
that holds no judgement
for you to express your heart's inherent capacity for goodness.”