Dog and Owner, Yin and Yang

In order to view this feature, you must download the latest version of flash player here.

#flashHeader{visibility:visible !important;}

Dan Balilty never photographed people looking as natural and beautiful as when they were with their dogs. If anything, he said, they became “better versions of themselves.”

But he learned that only after he had taken a series of on-stage and behind-the-scenespictures of dancers at a Tel Aviv burlesque show. The series won Mr. Balilty, 34, a prize in Israel’s 2011 “Local Testimony” photojournalism contest, as well as some new friends â€" the dancers, not only in real life but also on Facebook, where he noticed many photographs of them with their dogs.

“They were looking good,” he said in a recent interview. “And I realized they all had dogs.”

That moment of recognition led him to his latest series, “Dog’s Best Friend,” which consists of portraits of people in their apartments with their pets â€" the dancers, their friends and even strangers he met on the streets of his Tel Aviv neighborhood and elsewhere. The apartments were usually small, and Mr. Balilty found that the sofa was the only place with enough room for people to pose with their dogs. Even the toughest-looking owners looked “like ! puppies” around their pets, he said.

“It’s like the dogs are the owners in the people’s lives,” Mr. Balilty said. “People sleep with their dogs, let their dogs lick their children.”

Most of the dogs in Mr. Balilty’s photographs were rescued from shelters. He himself adopted a 30-pound Dutch Shepherd mix from a shelter in Jerusalem and named her Shuka, after shakshuka, a signature Israeli breakfast dish of eggs simmered in spicy tomato sauce. They appear in one of the photographs, Shuka sporting a green collar and looking toward Mr. Balilty, who is sitting by an electric guitar and a desk laden with sound equipment.

“I have a dog, and I realized how sweet the connection between people and their dogs can be,” he said. “It’s something worth photographing.”

Malkiella Benchabat, 27, a student at Tel Aviv University who writes a blog about Tel Aviv nightlife under the name Malkiella Page and also produces burlesque parties, met Mr. Balilty at “She Devils a Go-Go” a burlesque. She and her 4-year-old Husky mix, JouJoun, posed for “Dog’s Best Friend” with a half-eaten ice-cream cone at a local parlor. They were one of the few pairs not photographed at home.

“From the pictures, I see that the dogs complete their owners’ identities,” Ms. Benchabat said, adding that she believes dogs and their owners often resemble each other physically because they pick up and reflect each other’s attitudes.

Dan Balilty Yaara Kaisler, 28, and Shualy. Tel Aviv.

Ms. Benchabat said she saw such a resemblance between JouJoun’s face and her own. “I am a relaxed person. I try not to get in fights with people,” she said. “He’s the same way. He’s attentive to the dogs around him.”

With the help of watc! hful frie! nds around the city, Mr. Balilty scouted out his subjects on the sidewalks of Tel Aviv, looking for owners with unusual fashion choices or strong characters, as well as good relationships with their pets. Some owners were happy to pose, while others were resistant at first. But by sending them examples of his previous work, Mr. Balilty managed to persuade all but one of the owners he approached to participate.

The project convinced Mr. Balilty that a portrait of a dog owner cannot fully capture the person if the dog is not present. “The dogs are part of their story,” he said. “This is something nice that exists all over the city.”

In one image from the series, a couple and their two young daughters pose on a couch while Shush, their 6-year-old mixed breed, lies on the floor, one paw tucked under his body. In another, a paramedic in a T-shirt lets Chroosha, a pit bull that narrowly escaped a life of dog fighting, lick his face. “You can see his smile through the tongue of the dog,” Mr Balilty said.

That kind of scene is a welcome departure for him.

A former photographer for Israel’s leading daily, Yedioth Aharonot, Mr. Balilty now works as a freelancer and has had images published by The New York Times, Reuters, The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Time and Newsweek. As a photojournalist, he said, he constantly felt that he was “the messenger of bad news.” The “Dog’s Best Friend” series marks a professional shift toward what he called “positive messages.”

Mr. Balilty said the most significant thing he learned while shooting “Dog’s Best Friend” was that owning dogs can bring out the best in people. Even when they are not with their pets, he believes dog owners act differently than others.

“Taking care of dogs,” he said, “is something that teaches people to just be better people.”

Follow Lens on Facebook and Twitter.!