Elliot Erwitt (b. ????) took images that had dogs in them. In this light hearted photograph there is a small dog dressed in a hat and coat looking straight at us. In fact, straight at Erwitt’s camera. His viewpoint is low down at the little dogs eye level. The little dog looks intrigued although a little bit puzzled.
Our eye then scans the rest of the scene where we see the owners boots and the front legs of another dog. Our gaze hops two steps to the left and returns back to the little dog.
The dogs eye level is centred on the horizontal plane and in the right hand third on the vertical plane. The image shows us strong verticals, mainly in the form of legs but also the tree, the lead and the pavement blocks.
The subject of the image is the little dog and because we view it at his level we can begin to wonder what a walk with his owner is like. What is his owner like? What is the big dog like? Does he wonder why he has to be dressed in a hat and coat?
It is a humorous encounter and cleverly composed.
The course notes raise these further questions that I had not contemplated: Does he like to help the ‘underdog’? Does he prefer dogs over humans? Is he making a statement about giving everyone a voice? Or is he just making a joke?
I thought he was just making a joke. His series of ‘dogs’ suggests he does like dogs but is it just this image that raises those other questions or the whole series?
Martyn Rainbird 