I started my Unusual Pet Project in January 2023 with the purpose of getting ahead of any winter blues that might set in.

Since I love animals and I’m curious about the relationships people have with their pets, I started to explore these relationships with photography.

I put the focus on unusual pets in particular when I learned a photo client of mine had a flying squirrel - I had to know more.

A few peacocks, an emu, a ball python, a hairless elf cat, a bearded dragon, two macaws in matching hoodies, a one-eyed chameleon and more creatures later, the reception for the series has been consistently positive and motivating.

As the project evolved and the number of photographed animals expanded, a central theme emerged: I SEE MYSELF IN YOU. I discovered that owners of rare pets identify with their animals' mystique, distinctiveness, individuality, and eccentricity. 

From bearded dragons to dwarf hamsters, I found that pet owners, especially of rare animals, see themselves in their pets - their mystery, otherness, individuality, and eccentricity.  A truth emerged about the owners of unusual pets: pet owners find solace in the uniqueness of their pets. The unconditional empathy they give their pets is the empathy they want to receive from others. We all have a longing to be seen and understood as special and to receive unconditional empathy, and the relationship we have with our pets mirrors that desire back to us.

Take, for instance, the couple with the macaws who embarked on a year-long boat journey from Baltimore, MD, covering 18,000 nautical miles from Bermuda to Morocco and Portugal. Their Green Wing macaw, Gerry, sailed with the couple. They adopted their second macaw, Charlie, near a port on the Florida coast. Their macaws have become vibrant extensions of themselves, capturing the adventurous spirit and vibrancy they yearn to stay connected with in their new life on land in the Baltimore suburbs.

Another remarkable pet parent, Brittany is a compassionate animal caregiver who works for a nature preserve. Her suburban home is a well-cared-for zoo housing dogs, cats, turtles, bunnies, a tarantula, a one-eyed chameleon, and 16 snakes. Brittany is one of those people you can’t believe really exists - she’s exceptionally empathic and generous and adores, and maintains a deep curiosity for both people and animals. With her empathetic nature, she finds purpose in caring for this diverse menagerie. In addition to being amusing, surprising, and educational companions, her animals fulfill another significant role in her life: they provide an ongoing opportunity for her to express empathy, care, and concern. It’s like she is responsible for a well that is consistently in need of water and she is joyful that she is the one who needs to, and is privileged to, fill it. 

In each photoshoot, besides taking portraits and intuitively documenting the parent and pet relationship, I ask myself: How does this person see themselves in their animal? I also ask: How does this human-animal relationship extend beyond the home and create empathy elsewhere?

My goal is for this visual story to spread the joy and mystery and openness I felt taking these photos and engaging with the animals and their human parents. I want viewers to see the rarity of both the animal, the pet owner, and their unlikely bond. 

For a glimpse into the project's progress, please see my blog (mollyemiller.com/blog) where I've shared photo essays and write-ups about the remarkable individuals and unusual creatures I’ve met and photographed so far.

Note: In February, I’ll be photographing a piglet named Plum. I will be eager to share pictures of her!

Featured animals in photo sample (this info is embedded in each respective image files) from the pet owners:


Blue and Gold Macaw and Green Wing Macaw
Parents: Maddie and Herb
Pet names: Charlie and Gerry
Ages: 2 and 3

“Gerry enjoys sharing bananas, playing fetch (where she throws and I fetch), and snuggling. Her only English word is “Hello” and she uses it liberally, especially while taking a shower. Charlie is more independent and prefers to be nearby while snacking on various shelled nuts and taking naps. She enjoys going on drives and has an uncanny sense of direction.” 
For fun: “Gerry stands in my lap or on my chest and preens. Charlie idly chews wood on her perch in the Dentist waiting room or stands on Herby’s shoulder in his office between patients. (She goes to work with him almost every day.)
Gerry loves tickle fights, peekaboo, fetch, color training with balls, and lying being swung around by her feet.”
Most amazing fact: Charlie has sailed 2000 miles of open ocean with this couple…!

Bearded Dragon
Parents: Haven and her 4 y/o son
Pet’s name: Elliott
From the pet parent: “Elliott is a grumpy, cuddly man. He will give you looks even while snuggling. Elliott has zoomies once or twice a day when he runs around the living space and tries to jump out the front door window. Afterwards he sits in a window like a little busybody and watches the neighborhood. He also loves to sit among the plants in the sunroom under the grow lights and watch the birds in the backyard. Bath time is an extended affair where I end up changing the water to keep it warm for him as he swims around like a tiny alligator. Elliott snuggles on his terms and asks for kisses. During the summer months, I put his harness on and he accompanies me on walks and in the garden, where he eats greens and clover, watches the insects, and climbs the fences and plants. He was a class pet before I adopted him so he's very tolerant of people and personable. He's a sassy scaley cat with a huge personality.”

To relax and play: We like to snuggle together on the couch, he loves blankets and soft things, even falling asleep on me. We also sit in the window or on the porch together and watch the world go by.
Fun fact: Bearded dragons frequently become deeply attached to their owner and love to snuggle with them.

Emu
Parent: Kelsey, her 3 y/o son Hayden, and Kelsey’s mom, Vicki
Pet name: Big Bird
"Also called “Peckie Bird” by my great nephew was hatched by a friend of mine in 2010.  It takes 56 days for emus to hatch.  Big Bird was hatched in an incubator and raised for the first few weeks with chickens.  Of course this didn’t last long because she soon towered over her “siblings.”  Soon after that she came to live at the farm in a big enclosure along with Willow the deer. We thought Big Bird was a girl but confirmed that a few years later when a young man with very good smelling cologne visited.  Only female emus “drum.” (An emu has a pouch in its throat that is part of the bird's windpipe and is used for communication. When the pouch is inflated, the emu can make deep booming, drumming, and grunting sounds. These calls are usually made during courtship and the breeding season, heard up to 1.2 miles away)."


Turkish Van
Parent: Jessy
Pet name: Arya
The Turkish Van is known to be the rarest cat in the world. Jessy adopted this rare cat by accident when she and her daughter saw it slinking around a Baltimore neighborhood street looking hungry but otherwise well cared for. She and her daughter tried to contact the owner but no one ever put up a sign or post about the missing cat, so they adopted her and named her Arya. This breed was first brought to England in 1955 from Turkey. They are considered rare even in their homeland and are honored as regional treasures and are not readily available for export to other countries. Even in areas where the breed has been known for centuries, they are still rare.

Ayam Cemani Chicken
Parent: Mia
Pet’s name: N/A (doesn’t name so she doesn’t get too attached if one gets eaten by a fox or gets loose)
The Ayam Cemani is an extremely rare black chicken that originally came from Indonesia. You’ll notice that this interesting chicken actually has a black heart. One of the few truly melanistic chickens in the world, this bird is highly respected in Indonesia and believed to have magical powers that allow it to communicate with those in the afterlife.

What they do for fun: Roam around the open field outside their coop on farmland.
What’s most rare: All its body parts are black, including black bones and a black heart.

Elf (cross breed of American Curl and Sphynx)
Parent: Marielle and Ben
Pet’s name: Chewbacca (“Chewy”)
Age: 10
From the pet owner: “Chewy is an unusually food-motivated cat - even our vet has noticed. Because he is so responsive to treats, I've been able to train him on a few tricks including Sit, Reach, High-Five and Spin. Unlike a lot of cats, Chewy is not afraid of strangers. He likes to greet people at the front door, and when we have guests he always wants to investigate them. He has tried to "help" a couple repair people who have come into our apartment. If we have guests hanging out, he will sniff them and maybe even sit with them. He'll perch on their knees.”

Veiled Chameleon (one-eyed)
Parent: Brittany
Pet name: Cedric
Age: 5
“Cedric is a geriatric lizard who’s just recovered from a major surgery. He had an infected eye removed. He’s opinionated and expressive. He gets along with his neighbor chameleon, Clementine. But they don’t live together.
To relax: He likes it when I feed him. Otherwise, we have opposite ideas of relaxing. He’s independent.”
Fact you need to know: They don’t change color by what they touch, but to express themselves (calm, fear, happiness, etc)
“Chameleons, in my opinion, are more of a lifestyle choice than a pet. I’d like more people to know that ahead of time.”

Note: Brittany has 2 dogs, 4 cats, 4 bunnies, 10 turtles, and 16 snakes…!

Ball Python
Parent: Brittany
Pet name: Glinda
Age: Unknown (Adult)
“Glinda is almost four feet long, has blue eyes and is pretty friendly. I’ve had her since 2018. She likes to climb things, eat, snuggle with moss in her hiding hole, and she appreciates a humid habitat.”

Street photography is my favorite art form and the most challenging to me as a photographer. It's the pulse of a place, a people and a mindset. It's who we are when we're not watching ourselves. It's who I am as an individual seeing the world how I see it. Without a project or a particular constraint for the work, I am free to see beauty. But I am also not walled in by beauty. I can offer critique, show hypocrisy, and make judgements in my work. However, my favorite--and I think most successful--pictures are those where I am framing a scene without bias. I see. Often for me, seeing is enough. Seeing is profound. I love and live for seeing the world in new ways myself and through other visual artists. I hope that my open-mindedness and curiosity comes through in this selection of images. These images come from Baltimore, Madrid, and London. But mostly it is the "city" in general I am interested in. How do we live here? How do we get a long? How do we stay busy and why? Who are we in the cityscape? Why do we live here? What are we looking for? Or have we found it? 

Photo Essay and written article for BmoreArt Magazine

Note: I would like to continue this project to explore, in photo essay and portrait format, other socially conscious organizations in Baltimore that stand out for their excellence and humanity-centered goals.

Published article follows:
 

Walking into Baltimore’s Second Chance store is like entering an attic, a treasure trove, an estate sale, an art museum, a toy store, and a sanctuary. The massive store houses an assortment of unique salvaged and discarded objects including: functional historic pianos, a table that can seat thirty, a fully intact and usable bar plucked from a shut-down pub, a room of hundreds of lamps, another of desks, and much more. In short, it has whatever you’re looking for and something you never thought you’d find. 

As the largest reuse store in the US and a 501c3 non-profit, Second Chance’s mission extends beyond its salvaged objects. It also creates jobs for people who experience barriers to employment. Many of the employees—those who stock shelves, assist with holds, unload items into the store or onto your truck—have either served time in prison or are in some other way at risk of being vulnerable to unemployment. 

Mark Foster, CEO and Founder of Second Chance, explains the origin of the store. “My wife and I started renovating a house back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and we were looking for [historic] parts and pieces.” After realizing there was no place they could easily find what they needed, they decided to create the solution themselves. Roughly ten years later, Foster and his wife, Mary Blake, launched Second Chance.

They considered following the traditional for-profit “buy low, sell high” model, but they felt like they wanted to pursue a more visionary direction.. They believed that the objects they were saving could contribute to a more meaningful business model for the community. With a non-profit model, they could utilize that emphasis as a motivation for people to participate and feel good about the business. Sitting at his desk, which, Foster tells me later, is from the set of The Wire, he continues, “We started with a focus on architectural salvage and preserving the history of the community. There was a sense of selling it, recovering it, but also getting people to reincorporate it so that it would live on instead of perishing in a landfill.” 

Foster’s biggest goal for the store is helping people. In determining who might be the program participants, Second Chance tries to define who is most in need. That has largely been individuals who have come through the prison system. Many were young when they did whatever it was that got them in trouble and have missed a lot of their lives. Second Chance offers an opportunity for reformation and a new start. Foster explains that for some, Second Chance is their first job ever. But Foster's business model does not pamper employees. Instead, it offers opportunities to work hard and succeed in whatever way they dream up. He explains, “We supply certain things, but it's really up to the person to do something with their own life. We can't drag you, and we won't because there are too many people out there who will do it without being dragged. So, we want to find people who are motivated to get their second chance and take advantage of it.”

In the spirit of the store and the promise of second chances, I asked members of the Second Chance team to share a bit about their current favorite objects in the store.

Tyree Crawford, Sales Associate

Favorite object: Bel Loc Diner Sign

Crawford served forty-five years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Upon his release at sixty years old, he faced both relief and grief as he embarked on a whole new life. “When I came home, it was an uphill struggle because the family I knew had died,” he says. Crawford started working at Second Chance when he received a call from Foster. Two of his friends had worked there after release from prison and had vouched for him, which is why Foster knew who he was when he walked in the door.

Crawford says the Bel Loc Diner sign is his favorite object. The beloved restaurant closed its doors in March 2017 after fifty-three years in business, and the sign now on display is not for sale. “It’s the most iconic sign in here,” Tyree says. And while there are other notable signs, including the Broadway sign from Fells Point Harbor and the original Montgomery Mall light-up sign, the Bel Loc is the newest. Perched above a row of baby blue refrigerators at the back of the store, the Bel Loc’s striking typography and nostalgic message are a humbling reminder of a moment lost to time

Lindsey Foster, Attorney 

Favorite object: Chrysler sailboat

An attorney who works alongside the CEO, Lindsay Foster has a striking way with words. She explains why she chose a vintage Chrysler boat as her favorite object and how she values the idea of potential. “I’ve never sailed in my life, but maybe I could learn to sail one day,” she says, running a hand along the boat’s edge. “There are all these possible paths that you could take, things you could learn or skills you could develop… parties you could host or rooms you could decorate, a million different possibilities. It’s just fascinating, considering the past lives of the objects themselves and your potential together. Your future, the object’s future.”

Mark Foster, President & CEO of Second Chance, Inc.

Favorite Object: Relief sculpture he helped extract from the old Mercy Hospital Building

Second Chance was still in its early years when Mercy Hospital underwent a major expansion. Foster saw an opportunity, though he didn’t yet have any employees beyond volunteers and people he knew with experience in salvage work.In the middle of the night, with no foot traffic on the street, Foster and a cobbled-together crew got to work carefully dismantling the entrance portal. On a swaying lift fifty feet above ground yielding a handheld jackhammer to remove the bust, Mark tediously chipped all the brick from the outside of it to free up the individual pieces out of the facade without the whole thing falling down. 

“Although terra cotta is able to withstand the elements for centuries, it is very fragile—so removal must be surgical,” says Foster. “My affection lies in the fact that I survived and am forever linked to the experience… and to such a cool piece of history.” Since the Mercy Hospital project, Foster has not attempted any salvage job quite like it. Standing back and admiring the sculpture, he says, “I expect to be buried with her some day and am just glad I wasn’t buried BY her.”

Robio Reid, Pricing Manager
Favorite Object: Repurposed Frames in The York Room

As pricing manager, Reid touches most everything you see in the store. Every lamp, refrigerator, rocking horse, standing keyboard, 1920s ottoman, church pulpit—everything in every possible direction, she has priced. Lindsey Foster admits there are a few specific jobs at Second Chance that would give her “a nervous breakdown” and cites Reid’s as one. “I have a mini one every day,” replies Reid, walking us over to her favorite section, a thicket of frames that look like gilded sticks. She slides one out to show me, propping it up side by side with her. It’s about ten feet tall. 

Inside the York Room, this mosaic of frame pieces takes up most of the wall. From robin’s egg blue, to all gold, to striped, checkered andflowered, they make an infinitely more interesting and creative decor than a white wall or wallpaper. It shows ingenuity, creativity, and the value of repurposing objects. Reid is clearly proud of the wall and the idea of a new future for these wooden gems/ornaments.

Curt Raleigh, Retail Associate

Favorite area: Lumber department

Raleigh selected the lumber department as his favorite because of the endless possibilities the wood offers for creating new structures. “I got the idea for using horizontal scraps of wood as a material for the wall from Second Chance,” he says. “I thought of doing the same on my walls.” 

As we walk through the stacks of wood, his expression softens and then sharpens with inspiration, at home in this lumber sanctuary. Raleigh has progressed from a delivery worker to a delivery associate. He is a great example of Foster's mission coming to full fruition. Before we leave, Raleigh confidently hands me a sleek red and black business card with rounded edges, printed with "Raleigh Boy'z: For all your deliveries: Moving, Hauling & Trash Removals," a business he founded. On the back, a quote by H. Jackson Brown Jr., his late father: "Earn your success based on services to others, not on the expense of others."

Katherine Snyder, Visual Merchandising 

Favorite object: found keepsakes

Synder’s favorite part of the store are the things people leave behind: notes tucked in old books, art projects forgotten and abandoned in portfolio folders, postcards tossed out as trash, discarded family photo albums. She is most intrigued by what people fail to appreciate, like family heirlooms and treasured objects, which is why she makes it a point to preserve them. "I love nostalgic things. They transport you back to a time long gone." Even a single photograph found in a piece of furniture can tell a story and evoke emotion. Snyder is passionate about preserving these forgotten treasures and dreams of documenting them on a map to honor their history.

When setting up a room display, she envisions who might use the space and carefully selects pieces that would realistically be found in someone's home. Unlike the typical modern furniture sets from popular retailers, Snyder believes in the charm of a unique blend of old and new pieces, like a new sofa paired with a vintage chair passed down through generations.

Frank White, Retail Director, retired US Marine of 25 years

Favorite object: Vintage Go-Kart

"My favorite part of the job," White says, "is being available for these employees who need guidance and inspiration." As he puts it, "I try to make them look into the windshield versus the rearview mirror because most of our folks here want to live in the past." He mentors people who were incarcerated for long periods of time, often ten, twenty, or more years. 

Toward the center of the store, the large apple-red and tan go-kart  is one of the oldest objects for sale and White's favorite. He explained that he and his many siblings used to make their own go-karts when they were kids, assembled from disparate pieces to play on the street. This particular vehicle appears to be from the 1930s or 40s, a memory brought back to life.

Luis Ponce, Donation Pickup Manager

Favorite area: The York Room

Ponce is one of Second Chance's longest-tenured employees, having worked at the store since its inception twenty-seven years ago. Through all of the organization's iterations and changes in location, he has remained a constant presence. As an immigrant, Ponce visited the Esperanza Center, a Baltimore organization that welcomes immigrants, in search of a second job at an entry level. He now coordinates and performs donation pickups and in many ways, he is the face of Second Chance: warm, friendly, and recognizable to donors who meet him at their homes.

When asked what he likes most about working at Second Chance, he responded without hesitation, working with Foster. “I always tell him—when he goes, I go. But as long as he is here, I will keep working." His favorite area is the York room where the store stages all of its highest-value and most extravagant items.

While in lockdown, I didn't stay still. I was fascinated with what we all were doing at home to contain the COVID-19 virus. Along with a few photographers across the U.S., I started a "Front Porch Project" photographing families outside of their front doors. Putting my own own emotion-forward, black-and-white spin on the project, my work got picked up by the School of Visual Arts NYC (SVA) and a photo got accepted into Photoville (Girl with Flowers photo). These pictures are a small sample from the project.

A post from St. Francis Neighborhood Center about my project: 

Continuing community connections, and staying positive at home during this time is tough. But photographer Mollye Miller created a unique gift and uplifting idea--porch photos. From a safe distance, she took family photos on their stoops and porches at no cost to our families.

Mollye's photo project was a success--over 50 families in Baltimore County and City participated. [Her photos] showed families enjoying each other during the shutdown.... Our parents said that Mollye was a joy. She was the highlight of their day. Ms. Mollye gives energy that makes you smile. We love her spirit and her energy. The families appreciated her. Mollye is a regular volunteer at the Center with our photography club. In fact, her tips from her paid porch project sessions, she donated back to our Emergency Fund. When we thanked her, she stated,"Thank YOU all for the work you do for these awesome families and the community.”