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Ten dog years
Ten year on, photographer Charlotte Dumas seeks out the 100 search dogs deployed to help recover survivors and bodies during 9/11.
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Ten dog years
I had to take a second in September 2011 when I first heard it was ten years since the attack on the World Trade Center in NYC. It was impossible not to reflect on what the last decade had meant, personally, locally and globally. Everything changed yet everything stayed just as it was. My relationships, career path and left leaning politics hardly altered, yet my understanding of those aspects of my life are sharper, my awareness of what and who is around me is as clear as a water glass.
Yet, what of the 9/11 event has endured to provide a real perspective on the impact on our everyday lives and ultimately, the recovery and discoveries of the people directly affected? It turns out that a few of the millions of stories that surfaced as a consequence of that day have recently been given a visual platform in the form of a book titled Retrieved.
The photographer behind this project is Charlotte Dumas, a visionary with a different world view. Her experience of media reportage of 9/11 led her, ten years later, to seek out the 100 search dogs deployed to help recover survivors and bodies trapped amongst the World Trade Center and Pentagon rubble.
Charlotte’s inclination was to document these unsung heroes in their homes, wherever they might be in the USA. She also felt the need to recognise the closure of a complete decade since the event took place. Ten years in a dog’s life is significant and the twelve remaining canines have aged somewhat but they are no less intriguing or genuine than they were when Charlotte first saw their red eyes, tired legs or inquisitive paws in disturbing yet provoking newspaper photographs in 2001.
Retrieved has been an outstanding success thus far, selling out of the first edition in the first week of sales. This project comes completely from the heart without the commercial screech or cheesy pet love. It is a raw account of the remaining dogs who served a unique purpose and now live in retirement, probably unknowing of the connections they inspired or the lives they saved.
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Photography by Charlotte Dumas
For more information and/or to order the book, click here
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