CANINES
OF
NEW
YORK
HEATHER WESTON
CANINES
OF
NEW
YORK
An imprint of Weldon Owen
1150 Brickyard Cove Road, Richmond, CA 94801
Copyright © 2017 Weldon Owen
Photographs © 2017 Heather Weston
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction
in whole or in part in any form.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data is available.
ISBN: 978-1-68188-305-2
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
2024 2023 2022 2021 2020
Printed in China
Produced by Blue Sky Books
Designed by Krzysztof Poluchowicz / Paper Plane Design
Endpapers copyright 2017 Jeff Peters.
For Joe and Trish,
my number one dog people
In memory of Desdemona
6
Introduction:
Dogs in the City
7
I spent my childhood with dogs—my parents are crazy dog people. Ilke was a
German Shepherd who had been with my dad since he joined the Marine Corps.
She was very protective when I was a little girl, and she wouldn’t let anyone get
near me: my own private nanny watchdog. Then there was Daisy, an Old English
Sheepdog. We called her “crazy Daisy.” She loved riding in cars, and once she
even jumped into our neighbors’ car as they were getting ready to go somewhere.
Later there was Tri, a German Shorthaired Pointer. Tri went to a summer training
camp to hone his natural hunting skills. He was good at pointing . . . but not so
good at retrieving. He was a real family dog. My sister and I had a great time
dressing him up in our pajamas. To our dad’s dismay, we even let Tri sleep in our
beds—maybe we snuggled the retrieving instinct right out of him.
I don’t have a dog anymore because I live in a tiny Brooklyn apartment. Still, I love
dogs so much that when the opportunity to photograph New York dogs came up, I
said, “Yes! Let me at them!” Dachshunds and Pit bulls and Pugs and mutts: I wanted
to meet them and pet them and feed them treats. Oh yes, and make them mine by
taking pictures of them.
I didn’t know how much I needed to learn about photographing dogs, though.
As a photographer, I have spent much of my life getting to know people
through my camera. That’s what I do. Now I would apply all that knowledge to
photographing dogs.
But you know what? Unlike dogs, people sit when you tell them to sit. They smile
when you tell them to smile. They don’t bark at the camera, don’t try to eat lens
caps, and (most of the time) don’t lick the photographer.
Dogs are a completely different story.
My first subject was Lottie, a rescue from Tennessee. I met Lottie and her person,
Heidi, one morning at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Goodness, it was early. Lesson one:
Dogs go out early. Like, 6 a.m. early. Most dog people in the city don’t have yards,
so they need to take their dogs out somewhere to get a little exercise before they
go to work.
For my first shot, I wanted a photo with Manhattan in the background. Heidi told
me that Lottie, a Whippet–hound mix, is “surely part seal,” meaning that she’s
exceptionally talented at jumping and catching balls. So we let her off the leash
and tossed balls until we got our shot. What a beautiful way to spend an early
New York morning!
8
Turns out dogs are not actually allowed off leash in Brooklyn Bridge Park. We
managed to go undetected and we got some fun action shots. My second lesson:
Break the rules a little, especially if it means you get your shot.
Later I learned that dogs are allowed off leash in almost every city park from the
time the park opens until 9 a.m., and again from 9 p.m. to park closing. Hooray!
Prospect Park was first on the list. For those of you who aren’t Brooklynites, it’s
our largest city park and was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert
Vaux after they finished Central Park. I went with my human friends Kate (owner
of Maisie, a rescue mutt with a huge smile and a habit of running past the ball
she is trying to catch), Hazel (owner of not a single dog because her mother likes
cats), and Emily (cat person who is willing to hold my bag while I’m shooting). Third
lesson: You need an Emily. To get good dog pictures, you gotta have two people.
One to capture the image, and the other to hold your stuff, dole out treats, and
chat up the humans.
What an amazing morning! During off-leash hours, dogs are everywhere. I started
with Maisie and then shot about twenty dogs in the next few hours. I was rolling
around on the ground with dogs coming at me from all directions. I had a squeaky
toy. I had tennis balls. I had dog treats. What I didn’t have were knee pads or
elbow pads—and here is when I learned my fourth lesson: To capture a dog’s life,
you will need to lie on the ground. A lot. And it will hurt. Especially concrete. Also,
it turns out that when you lie on the ground, dogs think you want to play with them.
And they give you slobbery kisses. Fifth lesson: Bring wipes.
I discovered that New York is a city of working dogs. Marti is an actor who has
performed on Broadway and appeared in movies. She has numerous handlers and
gets paid more than a lot of the human actors in the shows she’s in. Marti posed
for me on the Great White Way—ironically, right in front of the theater where
Cats
was playing. Her owner, animal behaviorist and dog trainer extraordinaire
William Berloni, gave me some great advice on getting canine subjects to focus so
you can capture a dog’s expressiveness. Among his best tips—my sixth lesson for
photographing