5 Photographers Capture the Beauty of Elderly Dogs

Charlotte Dumas photographs the rescue dogs of 9/11 a decade after their heroic work, while Nancy LeVine spends years photographing elderly dogs throughout the United States. From a 19-year-old dachshund to a 14-year-old black lab, five photographers celebrate the golden years of man's best friend.

Moving Portraits of 9/11 Rescue Dogs 10 Years Later

During the attacks of September 11, 2001, approximately 100 dogs were sent to the scene; they searched for and recovered victims trapped within the former World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Photographer Charlotte Dumas recalls these canine faces from the news cycles that rerun in her memory; 10 years later, she discovered 15 of the dogs were still living, and followed them to their permanent homes across the country. Retrieved is a collection of their portraits.

Benny Was A Good Boy is Catherine Panebianco’s tribute to her best friend. It began about a year and a half before Benny passed away, when Panebianco first saw the signs of old age creeping into his daily life. She set down her camera and chose to make the photographs on her phone instead, mostly during walks when it was just the two of them.

Panebianco had Benny for fourteen years. Every season and in every kind of weather, they went on adventures together. As it so often is with dogs, the true beauty of life with Benny could be found in the mundane, in-between moments humans forget to savor.

Touching Portraits of Dogs Taken Years Apart, from Puppyhood to Old Age

Although Massachusetts-based portrait photographer Amanda Jones has been working with dogs for two decades, the first canine she could call her own was a longhaired Dachshund named Lily. As Jones’s first-born, Lily was there for it all— various relocations, the arrival of the photographer’s human baby— until she passed away after sixteen years of friendship. Lily, says the photographer, was the companion who ultimately led her to create Dog Years, a book for which she captured dogs in mirrored photographs of their youth and old age, taken years apart.

Beautiful, Life-Affirming Photos of Elderly Dogs

In 2006, New York City-based photographer Nancy LeVine said goodbye to her two best friends, dogs Lulu and Maxie. She has devoted more than a decade to honoring their legacy, traveling the United States in search of souls like theirs, elderly canines who are living out their golden years with a dignity and warmth that far exceed the aches and pains of old age.

Senior Dogs Across America is her stirring tribute to dogs large and small and their bond to the human beings who care for them. She visited private homes and sanctuaries and rescues for homeless animals. She met dogs who lived with one family their whole lives and others who were still searching for a home of their own.

Heartwarming Portraits of Extremely Old Dogs

In Old Faithful, the Toronto-based photographer Pete Thorne captures the time-worn faces of elderly dogs, inviting the canines to sit for him in his home studio and sometimes making special trips to visit those who, in their old age, are unable to make the journey.

Thorne’s wet-nosed subjects come in all shapes and sizes, expressing dispositions ranging from the introspective to the playful. The project, he explains in conversation with the Toronto Sun, began with his centenarian grandmother, who first sparked his interest in photographing the elderly—both human and otherwise—in a world that puts a premium on youth. Grinning wide-eyed or gazing fixedly at the camera, the dogs emerge like expectant children on class picture day, curious and eager to participate.