Shayan Asgharia never anticipated a career that would take him from shooting celebs – including the likes of The Roots, Lady Gaga and beyond – to the decidedly more niche space that is animal portraiture.

But lately, it’s been all in a day’s work for the Los Angeles photographer, 33. 

And earlier this summer, a commission for a bald-eagle portrait ultimately ballooned into a larger series during Shayan’s visit to the wildlife rehab at Sweetbriar Nature Center on Long Island, New York.

There, he captured on camera a flightless bald eagle named Franklin, who’s been living at Sweetbriar for the past decade.

Looking back on his professional trajectory, Shayan can readily point to the moment that inspired him to branch out from human subjects. 

It was during a photoshoot for Questlove’s blog Okayplayer in 2016 when a Dalmatian named Henry wandered on to the set.

‘It was an old Dalmatian, droopy face. The dog owner runs in, apologizing,’ he recalled. 

Shayan assured the owner he didn’t mind before adding, ‘Actually, do you mind if I take your dog’s portrait real quick?’

The embarrassed owner, no doubt relieved at the warm reception of the pup, readily agreed. 

On taking in the resulting photos, Shayan remembers thinking to himself: ‘I’m seeing something there that is not just a dog.’ 

The revelation ‘was the genesis of it,’ he explained of his professional foray into the animal kingdom.

What started as a passion project for the artist soon ballooned into a full-fledged arm of his practice.

That’s no doubt what led a Wall Street Journal photo editor to reach out to Shayan a few months back, asking him if he’d be able to rustle up a portrait of a bald eagle for a July 4 story about the history of the national symbol. 

Shayan, determined to find an ethical means of photographing the iconic bird of prey, put out feelers via his Instagram.

When he learned of Sweetbriar – and that the center housed a bald eagle ineligible for release –  he flew out to the East Coast on his own dime for the photo shoot.

The center treats and releases on average 1,000 creatures annually, and permanently houses more than 100. 

During his visit, he ended up taking portraits of several more of its residents.

These included a fawn coming from a ‘Bambi situation,’ as Shayan put it, after losing her mom to a highway traffic accident and an American kestrel kept as a pet before being confiscated from a smuggler trying to sneak it across the southern US border.

Another rescued animal was a mallard who had been disfigured in a snapping-turtle attack. 

Here Shayan has shared his stunning portraits of the center’s residents and the heartbreaking stories of how they ended up there.

Franklin: The flightless bald eagle who’s lived at the center for 10 years after falling from his nest

A good Samaritan found Franklin as a fledging on the ground on Long Island a decade ago, bringing him to Sweetbriar shortly after. It soon became clear that he’d broken his wing after a fall from his nest. 

He turned out to have broken a wing – which seemed to be on the mend, until, in his aviary at the rehab, he tried to fly, crashed into a wall and again broke his wing, this time causing irreparable damage.

Ever since, Sweetbriar has been his permanent home.

‘Ten years ago, there really weren’t any eagles on Long Island. They’d just started making a comeback,’ Janine explained. 

‘Now they’re more plentiful. But back then it was like, “Oh my god, we have to get him back. We need these eagles. It was really sad.”‘ 

That hasn’t stopped Franklin from thriving throughout the years at an outdoor enclosure at the center.

‘He is very vocal,’ Sweebriar’s wildlife-rehab director Janine Bendicksen told DailyMail.com. 

The typical, epic screeching associated with bald eagles in the movies are in fact the noises of red-tailed hawks. So from Franklin, ‘you hear this chicken sound,’ Janine described.

Franklin got his name in honor – or rather, in spite of – founding father Benjamin Franklin, who’d originally wanted the turkey to be the national bird. 

Shayan told DailyMail.com of his animal photography: ‘When you look at my work, you’re not seeing animals in nature… You’re seeing a portrait, a bust, which in my mind’s eye is a way to almost anthropomorphize these individuals.’ 

Chupa: The food-obsessed squirrel with neurological irregularities that prevents him from jumping

The resident Sweetbriar squirrel who goes by Chupa was among a litter of kits found in a tree that had been cut down. 

Speaking to the number of rescued squirrels in similar situations, Janine reported that Sweetbriar had already raised and released 70 infant squirrels so far this year.

When Chupa came in, it was immediately clear something was a little off. ‘We saw he wasn’t really the same as everybody else. You know, friendlier, wobblier.’

While his siblings developed normally and eventually returned to the wild, Chupa found a permanent home at Sweetbriar.

‘He’s all over the place jumping, running, going up your leg down your leg all over the place looking for food. But he can’t jump from one perch to another perch – he will miss. So he obviously has some kind of visual deformity.’

Earlier this month, Chupa made a break for it, slipping out a crack in a door and getting lost on the property. 

‘Long story short, we found him sleeping in some rose bushes out front … He’d chipped a tooth. It was like he was in a fight. “Yes, you’re not releasable.”‘

Shayan elaborated on his mindset when it came to capturing human versus non-human subjects on camera.

‘What I’m really known for, and what I started to understand, is that I love getting to know human beings, and sharing time and space with them,’ he explained of what drives his passion. ‘Photography is strictly a conduit to doing that.’

‘Now, that is honestly the same thing when it comes to animals. Because, what I’m looking to do with my animal portraiture, is to make human beings see animals the way they see other humans in portraits.’

Beaker: The mallard with half a beak who fell victim to a vicious snapping turtle

As a teen, Beaker fell victim to a hungry snapping turtle that removed a chunk of his beak and caused lacerations across his body.

‘A Good Samaritan witnessed him being attacked and was able to rush him to our hospital,’ wrote Janine of the incident.

‘On top of the loss of a substantial part of his beak, he also sustained some serious bite wounds across his body. At first it was heartbreaking, seeing his unsuccessful attempts at eating.’ 

The team, after ‘several days and multiple failures,’ eventually determined how to best feed Beaker, given his injuries – ‘and it works perfectly for him.’

The duck, Janine added, ‘will live out his days as a permanent resident of Sweetbriar Nature Center.’

‘He’s been through a horrible ordeal that would have ended most ducks lives, and yet has come out of it a loveable, personable, and extremely vocal duck that we’re all thrilled to have around,’ she continued, adding he’s become something of a mascot for Sweetbriar.

In his telling, Shayan experienced a profound emotional reaction to Beaker.

‘The thing is, when you see animals that have suffered some sort of injury, and have something going on with them… you can’t help but be overwhelmed with emotion  with what they went through at some point, the trauma of what they went through at some point,’ he reflected.

‘But then, you’re also witnessing them living – I mean living. Beaker’s not walking around in pain 24/7…. If Beaker comes in looking like that, and I photograph him, and I’m interacting with him, I feel this immense love when I’m with them.

‘With animals, I have this quick sense of like, I see them as an innocent life. And that innocent life deserves respect and protection.’

The unnamed fawn rescued from the side of a highway after her mother was killed

‘This sweet female fawn was found wandering on a main road crying at 6:30[am.] The Smithtown Highway Department chased her into the woods, but after driving by again at 11am, they found her back out on the road, crying,’ Shayan wrote in an Instagram post of how the baby deer was rescued. 

The department called up the rescue, and it turned out a mother deer had been hit and killed in the same place the night before. 

She’s with other deer orphans at the rehab, and the plan is to release her back out on Long Island come this fall.

‘Godspeed, sweetheart; you took my heart,’ Shayan added. 

The center regularly emphasizes to not try and ‘rescue’ baby deer unless it’s absolutely clear they’ve been orphaned.

Mothers regularly leave their calves alone while they forage for food for up to 12 hours before returning.

The rehab advises that fawns need help only if it’s known that their mom has been killed, they’ve been attacked by a predator or otherwise injured, flies are landing them, it can’t open its eyes due to ticks, or if it’s been crying for four or more hours.

Shayan spoke of photographing the fawn with particular fondness. 

‘Knowing their story, and what had happened, and now being in this room where it understands – at least, from my anthropomorphization – I feel like you get a sense that this animal understands love and care,’ he said.

‘Because it’s not running scared from us… It’s coming up to us, wanting to cuddle. I’ve got photos of it pressing its head against mine. It was licking my hand.

‘Money comes and goes… that kind of moment is just priceless for me. ‘

Diego: The American Kestrel who thinks he’s human

The American kestrel known as Diego arrived at Sweetbriar through a former intern.

The intern had gone on to become a veterinarian who wound up providing his services at the United States-Mexico border. That’s how he came to meet Diego, when, in 2021, a smuggler was caught trying to cross into the U.S. with the falcon in the front seat of his car.

‘They had taken him out of the wild and kept him as a pet,’ Janine explained. 

‘And that is illegal, for a bunch of reasons.’

By the time the veterinarian transferred Diego to Sweetbriar, he was imprinted on people, ‘which means he thinks he’s a person,’ Janine said. Other than that, there’s ‘nothing wrong with him.’

‘Since he thinks he’s human, he thinks we want to eat his food everyday… When we feed him, he goes to steal the food from you, and he’s like, “Get away from me, this is mine.” It’s interesting,’ she explained.

Shayan further spoke about his broader approach to DailyMail.com: ‘I want humans to look at these faces, the same way you would look at a Time magazine cover….

‘It’s how we make sense of the world, right? When we can recognize something. I want you to recognize an element of your humanity within that other animal.’

Stitch: The red-tailed hawk who lost an eye and a wing in a tragic truck accident 

One early fall morning in 2013, Stitch was hunting for food when a tractor trailer ploughed into her on the highway. 

The truck kept driving, but someone who’d seen the collision took Stitch and her wing, which had detached from her body, in a jacket and delivered her to Sweetbriar.

At first, Janine thought it was hopeless. ‘I thought she would have to be put down,’ she said. Likewise, the vet at first suggested euthanasia.

But, Janine correctly reasoned, given Stitch’s youth, she’d be able to learn to live without part of her wing, and just the one eye. ‘It’s like us living without a leg – the younger you are, the more able-bodied you become,’ she explained.

‘She has quite a charming personality for a bird of prey,’ Janine added. 

Shayan said of photographing visibly impaired creatures: ‘You have the heartbreaking moment of knowing what kind of trauma this creature went through.

‘But, while you have to understand that to respect the history of the individual, you also have to stop and see that this individual is thriving, given whatever situation they’re in now.’

Click here to donate to Sweetbriar Nature Center. For information on booking a slot during one of Shayan’s upcoming pet-portrait sessions, contact him here.

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