Bored Panda contacted Anastasiya Dobrovolskaya to ask a couple of questions regarding her work. The photos taken by the artist carry profound messages about respecting nature and valuing animal life. We were wondering how the photographer balances the artistic aspect of her work with the responsibility of conveying these important themes to her audience. Anastasiya told us: “I often photograph similar animals and people. It seems to me that this similarity emphasizes the value of animals. With the help of my photos, I'm trying to say: look how this fox looks like a person who holds it in his arms, people and animals are so similar, let's appreciate them equally.”

Dobrovolskaya continued: “However, the opposite also happens. Sometimes animals help me emphasize the value and uniqueness of people. This concerns my project Different Beauty, which is dedicated to people with a special appearance. As part of this project, I shot girls with alopecia with sphinxes, a girl with vitiligo with a spotted fox, a girl with burns with agamas, and a girl without an arm with a snake. The idea behind these shots is the opposite: if you are touched by a speck on the muzzle of a fox, why then is vitiligo considered a disadvantage?”

Animals can be unpredictable, and capturing the perfect shot requires precise timing. We asked Anastasiya to share with us an amusing or unexpected incident during a photo shoot that led to an extraordinary photograph. We found out that: “In fact, the behavior of animals in most cases is quite predictable. The most calm and sociable animals, whose habits are well known to their owners, take part in the photoshoots. We know well what they like and what they don’t like, so we always try to create the most comfortable conditions for the animals during the photoshoots so in most cases they behave very calmly.”

“Many people think that since an animal is classified as ‘wild’, it will behave ‘wildly’ during a photoshoot. I constantly hear the same questions: why didn't the snake/spider/lizard bite the model? Why is the bear so calm? Why does the fox sit nearby and not run away into the forest? Everything is very simple: spiders and snakes do not bite for no reason, the bear has a very calm character from birth and he likes communicating because communicating means that he gets mozzarella and strawberries, and the fox has lived all her life with people in the most comfortable conditions and therefore is afraid of the forest (she does not need to go to the forest, she needs a piece of chicken from her owner).

Love, care, and knowledge make my shooting 95% predictable. 5% are different fun situations (some funny poses or muzzle expressions). However, these shots are not added to the portfolio but are kept as nice memories.”

Asked about a particularly challenging or ambitious project that pushed the boundaries of the photographer’s creativity and planning skills, Dobrovolskaya said: “The most complex projects are those that involve a large number of people. The difficulty lies in the fact that in such projects I always act not only as a photographer but also as an organizer of the entire process. I always have a rough idea of ​​what the final result of the shooting should be, so I need to clearly coordinate all team members (designer, decorator, makeup artists, models, animal owner) in order to achieve the desired result.”

The photographer shared with us her memories related to some challenging shoots: “I consider one of my most difficult projects my photoshoot with girls with alopecia. I made it about 4 years ago, but I still remember how much I was worried. The photo shoot involved 6 models, 4 of which were children under the age of 11 years. I knew that they were terribly nervous, because for most children with alopecia, the disease is a big test, causing a lot of complex and self-doubt. Taking part in a photo shoot in such a situation is very difficult. Therefore, I simply had to make the most comfortable atmosphere for them and take the most beautiful shots so that the girls would believe in their beauty.”

“I was terribly worried. At that time, it was my first photo session in which so many people posed + most of them were children + 3 animals (3 sphinxes) participated in the photo session at once. At that time, I had been photographing for a little over a year, I didn’t have my own team, I didn’t have an assistant, and I didn’t have any help with the organization. On the eve of the shooting, a makeup artist who was supposed to do makeup for the girls wrote to me. The message brought me to tears: ‘I won’t come tomorrow, I’m afraid of getting infected by them’.

Then I realized how much people are mistaken about alopecia and how much pain it can bring to people who are faced with this disease. I wiped away my tears, got pissed off, found a new makeup artist, and got a great shot. And after the photo shoot, the mother of one of the girls wrote to me: ‘Anastasia, after the photoshoot Masha said for the first time in her life that she was beautiful. Thank you.’ I cried again, but because I was happy.”

You can click here to see the photos from that photo shoot.

Lastly, we wanted to know what kind of impact the photographer hopes to achieve through collaborations with conservation or animal welfare organizations. Dobrovolskaya told us: “I think that it would be a wonderful and very rewarding experience that would help me achieve the goals I set earlier. First, I want people to understand that all animals are beautiful. If you're afraid of spiders, that's no reason to call them disgusting. Disgusting are people who make disgusting things. Animals do what is in them by nature. All their actions, appearance, etc. are natural and necessary to nature.

Secondly, I want people to understand that a certain percentage of animals can (and sometimes should) live in captivity (in good conditions, of course). There is nothing terrible in this. An animal that is cared for, fed, has no stress, and lives a comfortable life does not understand why it needs to go to the forest, to a place where it will have a life filled with stress and trials."

"Finally, people must learn to appreciate nature and animals. I get a little funny and sad at the same time when I get accusations of animal cruelty. This is as far from the truth as possible because the animals I work with live in excellent conditions: they eat quality food, and receive medical care, which ultimately has a positive effect on their life expectancy. At the same time, the people who accuse me don't even think about what kind of damage they do to nature every day: car exhausts poison the air, tons of garbage litter the oceans, and cities under construction drive animals out of their natural habitat. Entire species of animals disappear every decade. And all of us are to blame.”