Photographers Share Years of Celebrity Pet Portraits That Show Stars as Their ‘Authentic’ Selves (Exclusive)

NEED TO KNOW

• Hollywood Tails features over 200 portraits of celebrities with their pets

• Photographers Charlie Nunn and Raymond Janis created the book after years of photographing stars and their furry companions

• The duo’s Los Angeles studio specializes in pet portraits and has worked with over 6,000 dogs to date

Celebrities can’t help but smile when they are around their canine companions. Photographers Charlie Nunn and Raymond Janis have the proof.

They are releasing the photography book Hollywood Tails: Famous Faces and the Dogs They Love, out Sept. 1, which is packed with over 200 portraits of stars with their pets. PEOPLE has the first look at the upcoming book’s adorable cover, which features Jon Hamm with his dog Murphy, Cybil Shepherd with her dog Dolce, Angelica Ross with her canine Candy, and Max Greenfield with his pooch Joey.

Nunn and Janis also offered a peek inside the book’s pages and shared with PEOPLE how the pup-filled project came to be. In 2016, the pair launched Charlie Nunn Photography, which specializes in artwork for animal lovers with Nunn, 44, as lead photographer and Janis, 55, as producer/wrangler, after noticing a lack of studio photography options for their pets.

“We couldn’t find anybody who would do it the way we wanted, which was in a studio, simple backdrops, like artwork for dog lovers. And so, we did them ourselves,” Janis tells PEOPLE, adding that the “obsession came before the profession” and that he and Nunn currently share four dogs.

The photographers soon found that others were searching for the same style; their Los Angeles-based photo studio “exploded very quickly,” and started attracting celebrity clientele. Five years into Charlie Nunn Photography, Janis and Nunn began making a concerted effort to photograph celebrities with their pets.

The result was over 250 starry photo sessions that produced photos imbued with genuine positivity.

“You put this beloved little animal in somebody’s lap and then getting them to feel and look natural all of a sudden becomes second nature, because it’s so much easier to really have an authentic smile and an authentic happiness when you have your cat or your dog in your lap,” Janis describes.

Those five years of work make up Hollywood Tails, which not only features photos of stars like Amanda Seyfried and her dog Finn but also heartwarming and often hilarious quotes from celebrities about their furry friends.

Janis notes that a favorite of his in the upcoming book is Judy Greer‘s photo with her dog, Mary Richards, because Greer’s response to the question “If you could change one thing about her [Mary Richards], what would it be?” was the honest quip, “I wish she wouldn’t bite my husband.”

There are plenty of memorable moments for Nunn and Janis in the studio. Janis remembers Paula Abdul being so excited to take pictures with her pets that she danced into the photo session, inspiring her shots in Hollywood Tails.

“There are some stars that have maybe a reputation of being a little bit more challenging to work with, but that’s really not at all what we ever experienced,” Janis shares. “Because we were relating to people not on a professional level, but on a level of this little dog”

After photographing over 6,000 dogs, Nunn and Janis have learned a few tips for working with four-legged models.

“We use a lot of noise makers, a lot of things that kind of get their attention,” Nunn notes, adding that he is constantly changing sounds up to keep canines engaged in the photo session. The photographer says that the fact that many dogs are food-motivated can also make directing a shot a bit easier.

Nunn and Janis are both excited to share their years of work with the masses through Hollywood Tails and hope it brings others the same joy they experience working with dogs regularly.

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“I think the one word that we always want associated with our photography is happiness. The portraits that really make you smile when you look at them. It is something for everybody,” Janis notes.

Hollywood Tails is out on Sept. 1 and is available for pre-order now. Nunn and Janis will be donating part of the proceeds to their local rescue, Wags and Walks.

Photographs from Hollywood Tails: Famous Faces and the Dogs They Love by Charlie Nunn and Raymond Janis (Weldon Owen, an imprint of Insight Editions). Photos © 2026 Charlie Nunn Photography.

Read the original article on People