Photographer Olivia Grey Pritchard

With todaay being National Dog Photographer Day, we're revisiting our Big Blend Radio conversation with award-winning photographer Olivia Grey Pritchard, who discusses her photography and beautiful and heartwarming coffee table book, “MUTTS: A Celebration of Mystery Mixed Breeds.” 

MUTTS aims to inspire joy and connection when readers look through these photographs. And for people who haven’t considered adopting a rescue pet before, this book shows that mutts have just as many unique, lovable, and desirable qualities as pedigreed dogs.

Pritchard’s mission with this book is to call attention to the heartbreaking fact that according to the ASPCA, over half a million dogs are euthanized in US shelters each year, and to encourage more rescue adoptions. In addition to fostering more love for mutts, a portion of the proceeds from the book are being donated to organizations that rescue and spay/neuter, including Take Paws Rescue, Animal Rescue New Orleans, Zeus’ Place, Greta’s Ark Animal Rescue, Trampled Rose Rescue, and the LASPCA.

After five years as a United Nations photographer working in combat zones, Olivia moved to New Orleans in 2012 and began serving families with her unique perspective of the visual legacy we want to create for our children (with fur and without!). Through her work behind the camera and creating her archival-quality artwork that families cherish for generations, Olivia preserves both the milestone and the everyday memories.

Olivia has owned mutts her whole life—from a border collie mix named Spike that her mom found as a puppy trying to get milk out of a carton and a husky mix named Wylie who met the school bus every afternoon, to the most loyal hound / shepherd mix named Chester who loved to sun himself in a certain spot in the front yard. So it’s no surprise that as an adult, she has a 120 pound St. Bernard / retriever / shepherd rescue named Jasper—the most patient, protective, devoted dog ever.

 More: https://www.oliviagreypritchard.com/