Four&Sons

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BY Four, January 17, 2012

Leo Cox is very clear about it: he asked permission to take these photos the day his next door neighbour’s dog was buried (after himself and his younger brother were asked to help dig the grave). Still, Cox manages to fill the frame with such intimacy, every time I look at the series The day the dog died, I feel I am eavesdropping on a very personal and private conversation.

And personal certainly is. The photographic series allowed Cox some degree of clousure about his own experience with the death of pets. The event transformed itself into a small book accompanied by this touching text by Cox:

A small book about a small dog called Scamp who lived next door.
I had 3 dogs in my childhood all of whom seem to leave me prematurely, this made me feel rather let down by the species as a whole and I guess this book is about my regret at not being able to spend more time with my own dogs as a boy and the fact they seem to be with me for a shorter length of time than I would have hoped.  
Spike went mad.  
Jarvis got too fat.
And Dolcie ate a peach stone and died.    

The beauty of these images is in their humanity. Cox captures a feeling that could have never been staged. Honest and simple: no frills, no decoration, no sentimental overtones. Tension replaces sadness with the inclusion of a window to draw us closer (Hitchcock would have been proud) and the grain of the film adds that out-of-time quality we mostly associate with war reportage photography.

We feel privileged to be invited in.

—
Photography by Leo Cox
See the complete series and more of Cox’s work here

Tags Black&White, Book, Leo Cox, Living, Photography, Reportage