His cows, Pier Luigi Dodi insists, were always happy cows. The Italian is both photographer and vet; he now teaches at an agricultural high school, but back in 2020 he was working in the biochemistry lab of the University of Parma in the mornings, and at a veterinary practice in the afternoons. On arriving on campus one morning, he found two cows in this position.
“I always think of my photos in either colour or black and white before I take them,” Dodi says. “I knew this would be the latter. When your eye, heart and brain are aligned, that’s when you take a photo. That’s what happened here.”
Dodi has been taking photos since his teens. He used then, and still uses, an old analogue Praktica. “It’s a strong, heavy camera; when you take a photo it makes a lot of noise, unlike the silent iPhone. I always have mine with me, it lives in my jacket pocket. The idea of the photo is what is important, not what you take it on.”
Dodi, who is a specialist in comparative ophthalmology in animals, says, “Studying animal problems or disease helps us understand it better in humans.” The cows in this photo were always taken care of: “They weren’t experiment subjects; the students would listen to their heart or inspect the colour of their mucus, to learn. They lived in good conditions, with lots of space. Wellness is important to me. I’m a vet, I want my animals to be looked after.”
