In collaboration with Raymond Meeks, we began to photograph inside the four major animal shelters in New Orleans, my hometown. I was drawn to these shelters because my stepfather was one of their directors in the 1980s and 1990s.

As with other projects we have worked on, it was important that we began with more questions than answers. We had few pre-formed ideas. We entered the shelters without a clear idea of what we wanted our outcome to be.

Most of our questions had to do with natural selection. Would discernible character traits and behavioral patterns emerge, pointing towards a collective phenotype? Was there a common thread that united these marginalized animals? Within the shelter, there is a blueprint for understanding our own human nature.

Several of these pictures were used in the London Financial Times, including a photograph being used on the cover of the magazine.