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Photo tripping

Wow. Saturday has totally disappeared in a blink of the eye. In one long blink of the eye. I spent the morning at TAS-South walking and photographing dogs and then came back home, ate four slices of fresh Ontario peach (no better peaches on the planet in my estimation) and then lay on the couch. Next thing I know, the light has faded and the house is frickin hot from baking in the afternoon heat and humidity.

I wander around aimlessly into the kitchen, look in the fridge, have a couple of olives, have a glass of water, wander upstairs.

The attic is even hotter so I turn the fan on. I could set up the A/C in the window but I'm still sleepheaded and can't be bothered. I'm going to try to remember this saturated heat feeling when February rolls around. There's some "Hot and Spicy Taste Sensation" tamarind balls on the desk beside the computer so I chew on one of those.

I'm not even sure how I got there now, but I find this online: Photo Booth, In Focus: Dogs, from the New Yorker.


This leads me to the work of Dietmar Busse, above, as well as Charlotte Dumas, below.


As per the synopsis for Dumas' book Heart Shaped Hole:

Dumas returns to the city where she photographed racehorses for her artist's book Palermo 7 in order to focus her attention on Palermo's stray dogs. The result is a collection of fourteen intimate portraits that manage to convey each dog's personality as well their collective strength and resourcefulness. Dumas shot her subjects on the ancient city streets where they live among cardboard boxes, grocery carts, and other human debris.

Now it's time for me to edit some of the photos from this morning. There's a super squiggly Doberman puppy coming up.

Saturday, August 6, 2011 · [Print]

2 Comments to “Photo tripping”

  1. Social Mange says:
    August 7, 2011 at 11:07 AM

    Thanks for the links to the photographers, I really enjoyed looking at their work.

    Where's the super squiggly Dobie pup? *peers under the hypertext*

  2. Fred says:
    August 7, 2011 at 12:05 PM

    I think mid week by the time I get to it. There's a couple of others I'd like to get done first.

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A request

The reason for this blog is to help get specific dogs adopted from TAS but equally important is to try to normalize the idea of shelter dogs being just as good and just as desirable as any other dogs including those which are regularly merchandised by backyard breeders, puppy millers and those few remaining pet store owners who still feel a need to sell live animals. The single greatest stigma shelter animals still face is the belief that shelter animals are substandard animals. Anyone who has had enough experience with shelter animals knows this is untrue but the general public hasn't had the same experiences you've had. They see a nice dog photo in a glossy magazine and too many of them would never think of associating that dog with a dog from a shelter. After all, no one abandons perfectly good dogs, right? Unfortunately, as we all know, perfectly good dogs are abandoned all the time.

The public still too often associates shelter dogs with images of beat up, sick, dirty, severely traumatized animals and while we definitely sometimes see victims such as these, they are certainly not the majority and, regardless, even the most abused animals can very often be saved and made whole again.

Pound Dogs sometimes discusses the sad histories some of the dogs have suffered. For the most part, though, it tries to present the dogs not as victims but as great potential family members. The goal is to raise the profiles of animals in adoption centers so that a potential pet owner sees them as the best choice, not just as the charity choice.

So, here's the favour I'm asking. Whenever you see a dog picture on these pages you think is decent enough, I'd like you to consider sharing it on Facebook or any other social media sites you're using (I know many of you do this already and thank you for that). And when you share it, please mention that the dog in the photo is a shelter dog like so many other shelter dogs waiting for a home. If we can get even five percent of the pet buying public to see shelter dogs differently, to see how beautiful they are and how wonderful they are, and to consider shelter dogs as their first choice for a new family member, we can end the suffering of homeless pets in this country.
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