Whippets

 
© Jo Longhurst

I came across this series of pictures by Jo Longhurst a few weeks ago. Although I’m not a big fan of dog pictures like say William Wegman and Ellion Erwit did make them, these took me by surprise.

“My work with the British show Whippet - a dog bred to an ideal standard - focuses particularly on the evolution of the visual image of the Whippet, and the construction of human identity through the shaping of the figure of the dog.

© Jo Longhurst

For several years I’ve been working with top breeders, photographing their dogs by bloodline, exploring their obsessive quest for the ‘perfect dog’. As part of my working process I use a variety of photographic technologies that have been used to record and control human portraits, including state-of-the-art technologies and those already considered obsolete such as stereoscopic cameras. Underpinning the work is an exploration of the effect of looking and being seen. My study of the Whippet foregrounds the intimate relationship between human and animal, and the increasing significance of photographic technologies in the development of human identity. Although I photograph dogs, the questions I ask are always specific to the question of what it is to be human.”

© Jo Longhurst

This project will be exhibited at the Museum Folkwang, Essen, 5 April - 15 June 2008.
A 56-page Steidl catalogue will accompany the exhibition.

See more of her work here.