TheDogShow

Dog Show was made outside a community hall in Brackenfell, in Cape Town’s northern suburbs. Against a brick wall, using a 6×7 analogue camera, studio lights and a pedestal, I invited people to be photographed with their dogs.

I was interested in what happens when the language of the grand portrait is brought into an ordinary setting. The lights, the camera and the raised platform created a small stage. People arrived with their carefully groomed, well-trained “thoroughbreds”, but the pictures are not only about the dogs. They are about pride, care, aspiration and the ways we perform who we are for one another.

What interests me in portraiture is not only the person in front of the camera, but the space between us: the brief conversation, the hesitation, the negotiation of how someone wants to be seen. There is a tension in the frame between photographer, sitter and viewer. The photograph holds that exchange rather than resolving it.