Over the past decade Dutch photographer Charlotte Dumas has fashioned a promising art career around soulful, haunting portraits of wolves, Roman Army and NYPD horses, the stray dogs of Palermo and New York, and even a blind circus tiger in an attempt to show that "the state of mankind can be read and studied by the way we relate to animals." She's succeeded critically and commercially: Sofia Coppola and the late Alexander McQueen are among many luminaries who've collected her emotive work.

For her latest project, the 34-year-old artist tracked down the last remaining rescue dogs who worked during in the 9/11 recovery effort. "I started my career portraying police dogs in my studio," Dumas says, noting she initially thought to shoot retired military canines. "When I focused on search dogs it got me curious about which ones would still be alive from 9/11. In my memory, it was the photographs of the dogs in the papers that stayed with me most."

With the help of FEMA, Dumas tracked down 15 survivors — down from 90 who originally served the sites — in nine states, from Ojai, California to Ipswich, Massachusetts, where she shot her first portrait of the black Labrador retriever, Tara. "She's the oldest in the series and passed away shortly after I shot her," Dumas laments. "It was a tough shoot because she couldn’t really stand anymore and I wanted to portray her in a moment of awareness."

Fortunately, Tara and her pack will live on in "Retrieved (The Ice Plant)," Dumas's elegant new photo tome, out September 11, eight images of which debuted last night at Chelsea's Julie Saul Gallery with a signing to follow September 29 at Soho's Clic Gallery as well as subsequent exhibitions in Los Angeles later this month, next month at Amsterdam's Galerie Paul Andriesse, and in November at Paris Photo with a larger show in Paris at L'Institut Néerlandais next year. Dumas spoke with ARTINFO about her new work and what's coming up next.

How did you find all these dogs after 9/11? It seems like a lot of them would have passed away by now.

I came in contact with Teresa MacPherson from FEMA who got me the addresses of the handlers of the dogs that are still alive.

What was the biggest obstacle while shooting this project?

The biggest obstacle was, I guess, the traveling involved. I started shooting in mid-March and had my last trip mid-May; I was away every week. Since the dogs and their handlers came from all different states, back then I had to finally go see the dogs in nine states, from California to Texas to Virginia and so on. In the end, it was this effort that also makes the project special to me, because I'm bringing the dogs back together again where they were ten years ago, which is symbolic and moving to me, as was the dogs' old age at the closure of this decade, after this enormous event that had such impact on the world.

Who was your favorite dog to shoot during the project?

I did like them all but I had the advantage of being able to stay overnight with two of the dogs and their handlers, and to spend some more substantial time with them. One was Bretagne in Texas, a dog with a great and long career, and the other one was Merlyn in Colorado. I included both of the two portraits in the series because the dogs were so photogenic and beautifully aged. The hardest was one dog in California. Since we were there for such a short period of time, I had to work under quite some pressure. This was the only dog I visited who I didn't get to meet the handler of, and I think this was probably part of why it was so hard to portray him. In the end it worked out well.

And what's next for your photography?

Good question. I'm working with military horses again, a subject I've dealt with before in Rome. This is going to be quite different, but will definitely also be a tribute to the animals at work.