William Wegman Exhibit Homework

I had the chance of visiting the interesting and intriguing William Wegman exhibit where he photographed his dogs in a variety of scenarios and poses. The exhibit space itself was spacious there were 2 floors of artwork that had space to observe everything in the exhibit. There was a total of 30 photographs of Wegman’s dogs in a variety of interesting scenarios and poses. In terms of categories there seemed to be a category for the dogs being in costumes, the dogs positioned in a dynamic setting, and close ups of certain parts of the dogs. The photos were taken via a Polaroid Camera between the years of 1979 up until 2007 when Polaroid discontinued the 20 x 24 film in which these photographs were printed on.

The dogs themselves were photographed in a variety of ways as stated earlier, they seemed to be divided into different themes or categories of dress up and scenario. The dogs that are dressed up in costumes may have some wigs that appear to be disheveled or messy or clothes like suits, dresses, trench coats etc. Some dogs are also placed in different settings. For example, there is one dog that is on a bicycle, then there is another dog that is sitting on a stool with balloons over its head or dogs in a blank black background. There are also some shots where there are some close ups of parts of dogs like the paws, or the legs at an angle or even the anus. The exhibit itself is called “Being Human” which I understand and I think fits in based on the content of the photographs. The dogs in the photos are doing ‘human like activities’ and are not things that you would think a dog would do. At the same time they are dressed up like humans with the wigs and the clothing. I don’t think that I would ever see a dog riding a bicycle in a park, or a dog dressed up like a model wearing a dress or a turtleneck sweater, or even a dog dressed in a hat with a bunch of crazy accessories and fruits . I think that the photos are good and playful display of dogs as if they were to attempt to present themselves as human. By not knowing exactly what humans do or dress up in but it is their thought of what humans dress in or do when their dogs don’t see them nonetheless an exaggeration.

One of my favorite photos from the exhibit would have to be the photo that I put below. I really like this photo because I really think that in terms of the aesthetic of the photograph it is a very bold and simplistic photo. The photo only consists of the two dogs in the dresses with a black background and just posing like everything is normal. I think because it is so bold it also brings out the representation behind the title of the exhibit ‘Being Human’. The photo brings out just that, dogs being human and nothing else in the photo which is another reason why I think that it is so bold. But besides the title the picture I think is a really good picture in terms of the outfits and the dogs that were chosen to model the outfits.