William Wegman- 1/20/15

William Wegman is an American conceptionalist and photographer. He is best known for photographing his dogs (weimaraners) in particular poses or shapes. Although he went to school for painting, he is now a full fledged 71 year old photographer. He shoots his dogs according to personalities and ideas. Many popular pieces were made with the help of his best canine friend Man Ray. (Man Ray is shown in the boots). Man Ray was Wegmans first dog, and sparked the idea of shooting dogs for a career. Fay Ray his next dog, had puppies and those puppies had puppies. He now has 5 dogs that he shoots with on a regular basis. Wegman, being very determined in his work, he trains each of his dogs multiple times for a actual shoot. In high-school I did a photography project mirroring work of Wegman. I went into the assignment thinking it would be easy to get my very well trained pups to work with me. It was a complete false thought, and out of 2 rolls of film I only deemed a couple photos usable. Because I have imitated his work, I have a lot more respect for him. What he does is hard and extremely impressive. One of my favorite works of his is the dog alphabet. He did every single letter in the alphabet out of his dogs. He also bases some of his photography off of older classic photos, like the one below. I find Wegmans work very different and wonderful. Dogs are certainly one of my favorite things, so I am very fond of his work.