Four&Sons

Author Archives: Nat Power

1. Sheltering dogs

   July 22, 2012 12:15 am 1 Comment

   Traer Scott’s motivation for action is long lived. Even as a kid, she was taking on the world for dogs in shelters. Scott’s project and now published book, Shelter Dogs, is emotionally breathtaking. Each canine portrait is bursting with a communicative yet melancholic depth that barks loudly to potential saviours and dog lovers, a subliminal education to an online audience to the desperate cause of dog overpopulation in shelters. Scott’s mission to put a face to the breed is impacting individuals worldwide to take action, the perfect synergy of art for a cause. Do something because you love it, change and honour will follow.

   The project started as a volunteer assignment to take dog portraits for the shelter’s online adoption agency to help people connect with a dog and potentially streamline the adoption process. As images began to stockpile, Scott found herself unable to delete the files from her collection, almost as if each picture was the only proof that this dog ever existed in the first place. Shelter Dogs commemorates these pups and helps enlighten the public about stereotypes associated with certain breeds and the horrendous breeding practices that cause a canine surplus in shelters.

   While the need to find each dog a home still exists, some dogs will never be adopted (between 30%–50% on average) and will therefore be put down. Scott has become “a very ardent advocate” for pit bulls in particular because their “largely undue negative stereotype”. Unfortunately, the majority of homeless pit bulls across America do not find homes, making them prime candidates for euthanasia, a tough task for shelters to carry out. Scott adds “sadly, euthanasia is often necessary at shelters for many reasons, the most heart-breaking being the simple need for space.” As proud owner of Audrey (a pit bull from the Rhode Island dog shelter), her experience has been incredibly heartwarming.

   The project has ultimately led to a full-time professional career where Scott can combine her passion for photography with her love for animals. In her own words, Shelter Dogs “put me on the map professionally and my life has never been the same since”. Following her heart has led to working with a real sense of purpose and intergrity that Scott is proud to share. Memorialising dogs in shelters might just drive potential dog owners to the pound rather than the pet shop. What a feat.

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   Photography by Traer Scott
   For more information about Shelter Dogs and to see more work, visit the site

2. Dog gods

   May 30, 2012 7:05 am Leave a Comment

   Looking at Tim Flach’s Dog Gods I am immediately overcome with disparate feelings. I feel adoration yet I am uncomfortable. Unbelievable studio detail coupled with quintessential captured moments wake up my curiosity for dog breeds I would usually ignore. Flipside, I wonder if the attention to detail is purely indulgent aesthetics. Ubiquitous is the human need to connect with dog friends by turning them into parodies of ourselves. Haircuts and grooming, modelling and training – it’s impossible to see a dog’s perspective on these matters beyond the wagging tell-tail.

   The series continues with dogs in their natural environments or at least appearing with that intent. Wolves in the snow, sheep dogs on farms and a dog pack with no background at all. The shots on the whole are visually stunning, mystical, comedic and challenging. Flach’s goal is to document the bond created over centuries with differing dog breeds and help the audience to appreciate how much they bring to our lives. The discomfort I mentioned above is in particular response to two close-ups, the Shar-pei depicted with its head drooped, almost highlighting a sadness for the way of the world, its wrinkles getting in the way of vision and physicality and the Afghan hound/s with long blow-dried hair mimicking none other than a rock star figure.

   I don’t intend to rain on the creative effort to document dogs in their magnified glory. After all, they are astounding figures of our world that bring, breed and teach love. Flach’s work is original, confronting and thought-provoking, can we hope for anything more from photography? It’s clear from this exhibit that we dictate our relationship with dogs and how they are presented, the bond we share is reciprocated but through a human lens and on our terms.

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   Photography by Tim Flach
   To see the complete Dog Gods series, click here

3. Ten dog years

   March 20, 2012 1:47 am Leave a Comment

   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

4. In the line of fire

   December 5, 2011 10:25 pm Leave a Comment

   I love dogs. I really do. I feel more comfortable playing with dogs than talking to friends. I love roughing them up, shaking their paws, massaging their muscles, scratching their ear, playing catch and kissing their spongy wet noses. It’s hard to admit this fact but, I think I just found a group of dedicated individuals that love dogs more than I.

   Joe Berkeley and Dave Gardiner are creative socialists who were commissioned by Massachusetts Vest-a-dog to help raise monies for bulletproof vests to protect dogs in the line of fire. Canine cops are not routinely fitted with protective luxury, government funds don’t stretch to police pets despite their courage and fearlessness in combat situations.

   This ad campaign is striking in its delivery, I was captivated from one picture to the next. Canines are shot (pardon…) in action and each photograph dog-tagged with a resonating message coming straight from the mind of the animal, “I can follow a criminal’s scent for up to 12 hours but all he needs is a gun to kill me in a second”. The narrative is perfectly illustrated through Christian Kozowyk magical lens and it’s difficult not to immediately donate to the cause, saving a trained animal to protect humans seems easy when the support from the community is collective, $10 can actually make a massive difference.

   The cause is ongoing despite 100% vesting of the Massachusetts defence dogs. The vests provided in the program’s early years are running out of warranty – I know, back to the real world! I was desperate to find out if Australia’s police dogs are protected from harm, turns out that the Victoria Police Dog Squad Officer could see no need for them due to a lack of guns. I think it’s because no-one has thought of it as yet and the money needed from the government coiffers, as in the U.S., does not stretch to our police pets.

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   Check other work by Joe Berkeley here
   Photography by Christian Kozowyk

5. Back to the future

   October 31, 2011 11:55 pm Leave a Comment

   Step aside from the fact you are reading this piece online, depart from the digital and celebrate the specialness of captured animal history in sepia tones. Generous benefactors and determined photo research over the last few years has brought about a prominent and classic collection of images from a bygone era featuring much loved pups and their owners. The Kennel Club presents the vintage exhibition Photography Going to the Dogs.

   The temporal constants between then and now are obvious – our beloved pet friends fit very snug in portrait pictures, and the life of the owners they cohabit remain as complex and wondrous as ever but, it is ever changing role and aesthetic that allows for dreamy comparisons of what life in the past was like for dogs and the pedigree traits worth valuing, one commonality is that tails were for keeps.

   More tangible goodies abound as the exhibition runs alongside the release of a published hardback to share 100 favourites from the collection. Back to the digital realm, you can preview the book through Blurb. Forgive the abundance of sepia, it has a longer shelf life than the silver used in black and white photography. Thank dog we have historians, protected archives, motivated curators and Libby Hall, her collection being a major feature of the exhibition.

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   NB. The primary objective of the Kennel Club is to promote, in every way, the general improvement of dogs and furthermore to protect and promote the dog’s varied roles in society.

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   Courtesy of the Libby Hall Collection / The Kennel Club Picture Library ©
   For more details about the exhibition, click here
   For more information about The Kennel Club, visit their site