“Often there wasn’t enough food for the kids,” Ron said. “Not many migrants brought a dog.”
Dorothea Lange, Iowa, Small Town Life, 1941. Note the dog in this image.
Photography is everywhere and touches just about everything in the tapestry of modern life. A story in The Bark magazine, by Elizabeth Partridge, talks about the lack of dogs in many of the Farm Security Adminstration photographic collection due to the tough times. Her father Rondal Partridge worked with Lange during the capture of these iconic American Images and is quoted as saying: “Often there wasn’t enough food for the kids,” Ron said. “Not many migrants brought a dog.”
It's hard for me to imagine my world without dogs in it. And my longtime readers will no doubt recognize my German Shepherd, Bailey (shown above, in her first appearance in a how-to story) who has appeared as a model in tons of stories both here in the Adorama Learning Center and over at Pop, including the very first article I wrote for the Learning Center back in 2005!
So how does this tie in to The Bark and Dorothea Lange?
Simple: for many of us, dogs and photography are inextricably woven into the fabric our lives. And there's a feature in each issue and online called "Smiling Dogs" featuring reader-submitted photos that's a surefire injection of instant happiness into your day. Seems I'm not alone in turning my lens toward my canine companions!
And there's now also a book version of these happy smiling dogs, Dog Joy, with a customizable overleaf cover for you to upload your own "smiling dog" as the cover model. For photographers who are crazy for their dogs, this is a pretty cool customized gift!
