Four&Sons

Straight outta Compton

BY Mel Cousipetcos and Campbell Boyer, May 29, 2012

SS Kennels are a group of ‘Bully’ breeders located in Compton, Los Angeles (cue N.W.A). Their business ranges from breeding and selling the dogs to showing them at Bully specific events. Ollie Grove and Will Robson-Scott (photographers of the previously featured In Dogs We Trust series) spent some time down there shooting the breeders and their dogs (with cameras). Ollie fills us in on the Compton Bully breeding scene: how they got there, who they met, what they did.

On using your connections
We had spent time with and shot who is the co-owner of SA kennels, also from Los Angeles. Dietrich was a truly dog driven man who bred, schooled and attack trained Bully breeds. Basketball players, American footballers and rappers would bring their dogs to Dietrich who would then train them to protect their owner if a situation ever arose. After shooting Dietrich and his noble hound/trained killer, he insisted that we pay a visit to Double SS kennels and meet his friends there.

On frontin’
Based in Compton, I said we’d love to go, lying through my teeth; the thought of two sunburned white lads dropping in to Compton with our clunky camera gear made me feel slightly uneasy. Having been bought up on films like Menace 2 Society and Boyz n’ the Hood, I felt like I’d already been to Compton, and I didn’t feel like going back. Will on the other hand was decided from the get-go. He had no qualms about it and only convinced me to go after calling me pathetic for an entire day. Without his fool-hardy Irish gusto I would have never gone.

On the dogs
The dogs that Double SS kennels were breeding looked like nothing I’ve ever seen. They did not have the tall athletic looking stature of your standard American Pitbull but instead a squat, barrel-like physique with wide heads that looked capable of destroying anything. Despite the ferocious appearance, the dogs were friendly and sociable towards us, with similar temperaments of a Staffordshire bull terrier – waggy tailed and keen for some attention. I presume that most of the dogs fiery characteristics would mostly come out in the presence of an intruder to the property or towards other dogs.

On the Boyz
The owners themselves, and their friends, were gentlemen. Their dress code and the language they spoke was true to the films and music videos we’ve all seen before, but they treated us as welcome guests. They spoke openly of the situation of the area, their connections and their dogs association to the negative sides of the life in Compton; but breeding the dogs was their way of avoiding these negative aspects it seemed. It is a focus, a drive, and a way to make them good money.

These people genuinely love the dogs. As a dog lover, I was nervous that these guys might be breeding dogs to fight and nothing more than a desire to breed a tough fighter was their only aim. But I was glad to hear these breeders had no desire to fight their dogs and actively discouraged that sort of behaviour. Despite the unorthodox methods of keeping a dog (from an Englihman’s point of view) they loved their dogs just as much as anyone.

Of course when an owner stands with their tough-looking dog they will play the part and look tough themselves, but you can’t always judge a person by a picture. Show-boating is all part of the package. The whole Bully breeding thing is very similar to English lads who like fixing up their cars in a boy racer style, taking it to a meet up point and showing it off. These guys would work through generations of dogs to breed their perfect looking bully for others to admire and then go to that kennel to buy one themselves.

On good hospitality
It was a Sunday when we went down there and so the breeders had a lot of their friends round. They asked us to join them in smoking some of their herbal remedies and I tried to refrain, knowing that a few puffs could lead me into a state of confusion and paranoia deep in the heart of Compton. They frankly insisted that we enjoy a round of puff puff pass with an excessive amount of blunts on the go; when one was passed, another would fall into mine or Will’s hand until the comedy-sized blunts were finished. After fifteen minutes I was red eyed, dry mouthed and ferociously paranoid. The fears in my mind of my throat being slit in exchange for my rangefinder were gladly never to manifest themselves in reality.

On dress code
The clothing is just an American thing; if you have a hobby, you wear a t-shirt saying so. The tattoos I believe just come from the fact that these guys have tattoos, like a lot of people in Compton, be it gang tattoos or whatever. These guys choose their kennel to emblazon on their body and to me it seemed more positive than a gang reference.

On the project In Dogs We Trust
It is always nice to see the pride in an owner or the connection between the two. I think it also benefits an image when the situation or the relationship surprises you – an owner and dog that don’t fit the stereotype. But it is also great when the owner and dog fit the stereotype so perfectly. It would have been easy to start a project and just photograph middle aged women in wellies walking a Labrador across Hampstead Heath, but everyone knows that exists and they can see it any time, just by going to the heath! It is nicer to present a slice of man and dogs life that not everyone can see, thus the reason we generally wanted to photograph the people and their dogs in or around their home.

On working with Will
The project started as a collaboration and worked well as one. The very first shoot we did for it, I organised and Will shot it. From then on, if we went together on a shoot, we’d take it in turns to shoot it how we wanted, or leave it to the other one of us who had clearly got the shot. After a while though, we’d just end up finding a subject we wanted to shoot and then going off on our own to do it. I enjoyed working with Will. It’s always nice to work with your friends in any capacity, but in a creative industry, it’s nice to know there is an extra pair of eyes that you respect and trust working with you.

And finally, if we were dogs…
Will would be an irritable, wire haired, sleepy, small, occasionally fat, always drunk mongrel. I would be a pathetic, whining, nervous, negative but occasionally happy lurcher.

—
Photography by Ollie Grove and Will Robson-Scott
To see more of Ollie work, visit his site

Tags Breeders, Bully, Community, Compton, Culture, Deitrich Brown, Double SS Kennels, In Dogs We Trust, Los Angeles, Ollie Grove, Personal, Photography, Portrait, Society, Will Robson-Scott