Lisa Röthig

STRAY

When I was a child I grew up in Germany with two dogs at my home. I always had a special relationship to animals. I simply love them and try to understand them. Dogs in Germany are mostly considered as pets, living together in a regulated relationship with humans and often have a good, save life, enough food, attention and love. That was the experience I grew up with. Since i\'ve been traveling around other countries this picture has changed dramatically. I had no idea about what it could mean for a dog to live in other cultures. In Albania, on a project where we were helping out, we had our first formative experience with a street dog. He was not welcome at that place because he was considered a danger to the livestock, that is usually roaming free in Albania. The neighbors threatened to shoot the dog if he continues to roam wild. Dogs are worth nothing in countries like Albania because they are usually of no use if they are not shepherd dogs or home protectors. There is no such thing as a cuddly pet. Today, this former stray has become our faithful companion. Just a week later, we found a little puppy crawling towards us from the garbage. He couldn\'t walk properly and his mother was nowhere to be seen. We tried to help him and got in touch with a dog shelter in the area who took care of him even though they are constantly crowded and understaffed with helpers. They try to help where they can but the shelters are full of homeless, wounded and starving animals. Unfortunately, even the little puppy \"Baloo\" didn\'t make it after a month due to a virus. These sad incidents stirred something in me and from then on I started to process my feelings of the subject \"stray dogs\" with the help of photography. I began to observe them everywhere on the streets, to follow them and keep my focus on their life in different cities and societies. I wonder how they can survive out in the streets. How do they find food? How to manage to live together with humans and how do people interact with them? I also went to various shelters in Albania and Greece to get to know the people who spend all their free time and love to help as much dogs as possible. One year ago, while travelling through several Balkan countries, Turkey, Greece, Italy and Spain, I started to make a photo documentary about that topic and I`m still not finished yet, because my fascination and enthusiasm for these sensitive animals has not ceased since then. Because dogs don\'t speak our language or we don\'t understand them i would like to speak for you in pictures. My picture series is in black and white because I want to reduce the pictures to the essentials. My feelings and emotions on the subject are not in color.