DAY 288

PHOTOGRAPHIC CURIOSITIES

Dog Photography

THE SUBCULTURE OF CANINE COMPANIONS

One dog wakes up on a bed of silk. She is bathed, groomed, and massaged in preparation for a show later this week.

Another dog is dressed in a T-shirt bearing a political slogan and carried by its owner to an antiwar rally.

A third dog scratches its fleas as it scrounges amid piles of refuse. The dog sleeps on the roof of a cinder block structure, seeking shelter from the rain wherever it can. It will likely spend its entire life without knowing the taste of commercial dog food.

Hard as it is to believe, all three animals descended from a common ancestor.

Nowhere is the disparity between rich and poor humans so apparent than in the disparate treatment of pet animals. Bernadette Johnston has highlighted the peculiar subculture surrounding pet dogs in this photo-documentarian series.

The photographer roams the streets of New York, London, and San Diego, using a lightweight Mamiya 7 II to capture the fleeting moments that are most illustrative of “dog culture.” In stark contrast with these urbane scenes, Johnston also includes images of dogs from poverty-stricken neighborhoods in Colombia—where residents doubtless have more pressing priorities than finding the right orthodontist for their Shih Tzu. —DJS