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DAY 283 | FAMOUS PHOTOGRAPHERS |
William Wegman (1943–)
IT’S A DOG’S LIFE
When people hear the name William Wegman, they think of his quintessential images of deadpan Weimaraners in costumes, colorful and wryly humorous work that pokes fun at the oddities of life. Wegman’s use of the 20x24 Polaroid camera produces crisp, colorful images of his canine muses set in a variety of staged scenes that have culminated in comical modern renditions of children’s book favorites, such as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, ABC, and Mother Goose. He has also created numerous books for adults, including Man’s Best Friend, Fashion Photographs, Fay, and The New York Times bestseller, Puppies.
Wegman holds both a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. in painting, underscoring the fact that he is also an accomplished painter. He has passed on this knowledge at various universities over the years, including California State College in Long Beach, where he first became interested in video work, and made it into a career.1 Over the years, he created video segments for Sesame Street, Nickelodeon, and Saturday Night Live. His work has also been shown at the Sundance Film Festival.
His photographs, paintings, videos, and drawings have been exhibited internationally and are held in the permanent collections of the Hammer Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. —GC