Discovering the Photographer

William Wegman

As we journey through life we are presented with different forms of gifts. Some gifts we are born with, like a talent of some sort, some are given to us in material form. All of nature is a gift to all of us, this is a large common gift. Within nature we also embrace the animal kingdom, especially our pets. The photographer William Wegman has made a whole career as an artist and photographer using his pet dogs. He was able to humanize his dogs and capture that humanization as video art in the late 1970’s. Later his work evolved into photographs and children books.

William Wegman was born in 1943 in Holyoke, Massachusetts. He received a B.F.A. in painting from the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston in 1965 and an M.F.A. in painting from the University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana in 1967. From 1968 to 1970 he taught at the University of Wisconsin. It was while he was in Long Beach that Wegman got his dog, a Weimaraner who he named Man Ray, and began a long and fruitful collaboration. Man Ray, known in the art world and beyond for his endearing deadpan presence, became a central figure in Wegman’s photographs and videotapes.

Wegman established himself first as a video artist using his dogs. He continued to develop creative and comic pieces using his two Weimaraner dogs. His video art became renown because no artist had ever produced such work, especially that was comical. One of his first video pieces was called Two Dogs and a Ball shown below.

Below is a group of Wegman’s videos showing the development out of the simple video above.

Out of Wegman’s work grew a series of childrens’ books inspired by the dogs’ various acting abilities: Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, ABC, Mother Goose, Farm Days, My Town, Surprise Party and Chip Wants a Dog.  Wegman has also published a number of books for adults including Man’s Best Friend, Fashion Photographs, William Wegman 20 x 24, The New York Times Bestseller Puppies, Fay, William Wegman: Paintings and the upcoming Being Human, edited by William Ewing and published by Thames and Hudson fall 2017.

Wegman has created film and video works for Saturday Night Live and Nickelodeon and his video segments for Sesame Street have appeared regularly since 1989. In 1995, Wegman’s film The Hardly Boys was screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Wegman has been commissioned to create images for a wide range of projects including a fashion campaign for Acne, banners for the Metropolitan Opera and covers for numerous publications including The New Yorker and, most recently, Wallpaper. Wegman has appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and with Jay Leno, The David Letterman Show and The Colbert Report.

William Wegman lives in New York and Maine where he continues to paint, draw, make videos and take photographs with his dogs Flo and Topper.

Assignment: This assignment is contingent on you having a dog or cat at home.

Using your cell phone and a ball recreate the first video that William Wegman produced. Send the video to ihs.db@yahoo.com. It will be posted here and on the home page. Do not film more than one minute.