The use of animals in art has been there for very many years. Artists use animals in art for decoration and symbols of human foibles (Kovacs, 2015). There are many ways in which photographers represent animals. After the introduction of photography in the 1800s, people began taking photos of various animals. Because of this idea of animal photography cities in Europe started having zoological gardens in the 19th century. The zoos allowed people to view different animals and take photos of them. In 20th century, animal photography improved and photographers could take photos of animals in complex movement.
The photography of animals like dogs has not been left behind. From 19th century, people have been expressing their love for dogs, capturing their joy, friendship and character using photography. To celebrate the world’s favorite animal people have taken thousands of photographers. One such photographer is Elliot Erwitt who became famous for his work, ‘A Dog in Paris’. Erwitt was born in1928 in Paris. His parents were of Russian origins. Erwitt lived in Milan in his childhood years before moving to the United States together with his family.
In his teenage years, Erwitt developed interest in photography mostly because of living in Hollywood. He went to Los Angeles College where he studied filmmaking and photography. He finished his education in the New Scholl for Social research in the 1950 before joining the army. While serving in the army he worked as an assistant photographer. He met various people like Robert Capa, Edward Steichen, and Roy Stryker among others who influenced him (FamousPhotographers.net, 2018). Erwitt was hired by Stryker to work on a Standard Oil photography project.
127 our experts are availableright now
Stryker was working in the photography department in the Farm Security Administration Company. Erwitt his photography freelancing career where he did several works like Look, Life, Collier’s among others. One of his most favorite subjects in his photography career is dogs. He has written several books about them. For example, To the Dogs, Elliot Erwitt’s, Dog Dogs and so on (FamousPhotographers). In 2002, the Royal Photographic Society awarded him with a Centenary Medal for his contribution in photography.
Erwitt’s most famous work is A Dog in Paris which is a photo of a jumping dog that he took. Elliot loves dogs and he can do anything in order to take photo of a dog. He claims that to make a dog jump you have to bark at it. If you speak their language they will jump and it will be easy to take a photo (Merritt). According to him, barking at dogs is a dangerous sometimes because they can misbehave. At one time he barked on dog and on peed on him. In another instance when he was walking in the street he saw a woman walking with a dog behind her. Elliot was behind them and he decided to bark.
The woman turned and kicked the dog thinking that it was the one that barked. Elliot’s photos like the jumping dog photo are graphically interesting. They are quite interesting and they make people laugh. The jumping dog photo is one the most popular photos he did. The photo was captured in 1989 in Paris. The man in the photo seems to be standing still and in focus as if he was posing for the photo while the dog was in motion (Merritt, 2018). The dog was jumping up and down when the photo was being taken. As a photographer, Erwitt has received a lot of praise for being able to take such a photo. Not many photographers can be able to take such quality photos.
