When San Francisco photographer Juanita Angel set out to photograph canines, she decided to be a little unconventional. “I didn’t want a heroic beauty portrait,” she explained. “I wanted those quirky features that make them unique.”
Hence “The Tongue Project” was born — Angel’s attempt to showcase local dogs’ quirks through one of their most expressive body parts: their tongues.
Angel lives in a building in Lower Nob Hill with “more pets than humans.” She started the project by documenting the dogs in her building, many of which she had seen around in common spaces. And the camera lens didn’t click until the tongues emerged.
Angel said that photographing dogs was a way for her to get her fur fix. Originally from Colombia, Angel has two Golden Retrievers back home. After she moved to San Francisco three years ago to get a master’s in photography at AAU, Angel said that not having a dog was driving her crazy. “I missed coming home to a wagging tail or waking up to all of their excitement,” she said. “I was the crazy person stopping strangers on the street asking if I could pet their dogs.”
“I was about to adopt a puppy, but it wouldn’t be fair because I’m an art student — which means I’m always broke, and I’m usually running around the city planning my next project. So I started dog-sitting.”
One thing led to another, and Angel got the idea to photograph these dogs mid-pant. Thus, the cuteness was born.
For more of Juanita’s photography, check out her Instagram and website.
