Janet Holmes always loved animals, but for many years she was afraid to get involved with rescuing them because she couldn’t imagine how she would deal with the heartbreak. She was almost fifty when she finally acknowledged that animals needed her more than she needed to be comfortable, and so she began volunteering with rescue groups as a photographer, making portraits of rescued animals and their caregivers. She works on a non-profit basis, donating her services and profits to support animal rescue and care. Janet was recognized by Photolucida as a Critical Mass Top 200 Finalist in 2017 and 2018 and won the People’s Choice Award for her series on rescued chickens in United Photo Industries’ multi-city outdoor exhibition The Fence 2018. German fine art publisher Kehrer Verlag published her photo book Nest: Rescued Chickens at Home in 2020. In 2024, she won “Best in Photography” at the Riverdale ArtWalk.

When I photograph rescued farm animals, I seek to enter their world on their terms, respecting and revealing their unique personalities. Where possible, I photograph them at eye level to emphasize the equality between subject and viewer, facilitate engagement with these animals, and provoke curiosity about how they experience humans and the world we share with them.