Dartmouth photographer brings back the '80s with totally rad pet portraits

Whether it's 1980s-inspired fashions, or music, thanks to Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” there's no doubt the decade has had a comeback recently.

Now, a Nova Scotia photographer is channelling the iconic period with portraits of pets and their owners.

“I do a lot of weddings, corporate shoots, music videos, portraits, headshots, and, yeah, sometimes I do a fun little gag shoot,” Claire Fraser told CTV News Atlantic.

A woman poses for a double exposure style photograph with her cat. (Courtesy: Facebook/Claire Fraser - Photography & Videography)

Fraser takes photos of people holding their dogs and cats in their arms. Then she coaxes the furry friends with treats to pose for their individual shots.

The end result is a modern take on the classic, yet somewhat awkward, double exposure style photographs that were popular back in the day.

Fraser says her portraits were inspired by the movie poster for the 2008 comedy “Step Brothers,” with Will Ferrell resting his hands on John C. Reilly’s shoulder.

“This ‘80s-themed portrait session, it was actually my partner’s idea. He found this Will Ferrell ‘80s-style portrait on the internet,” Fraser says.

“Then he kind of did a little more research and found that there’s all these photos out there of people and their cats, like double exposure, and the animals are in the corner and everyone’s looking really strangely and awkwardly up into the distance.”

While the 1980s has long come and gone, Fraser has found the double exposure style of ‘80s photography still continues to be popular.

“We wanted to recreate this as a Christmas card for our families. Family and friends thought they were hilarious,” she says. “I had a lot of people be like, ‘Oh you have to do this for us, we want to get a shot with our pet, or our cat, or gecko, or like, really funny animal suggestions.”

A woman poses with her dog for photographer Claire Fraser. (Courtesy: Facebook/Claire Fraser - Photography & Videography)

Fraser thinks the “absurdity” of the photos is what piques people’s interest.

“It’s so absurd that people love it.”