Elliot Erwitt, New York 1974
The photograph of the woman and the dogs is a clearly witty image. The long legs of the large dog and the booted woman contrast with the small chihuahua with its rather ridiculous hat. There is a sense of extremes – the dogs could not be any more incompatible with each other. The picture shows the extremes of pet ownership, animals as trophies for humans, pampered prizes. I find it particularly interesting that Erwin has included the woman’s coat as it might have been tempting to crop that out and centre the focus even more on the small dog. By leaving the garment in the picture it makes the photograph more about the relationship between human and dog. The hat suggests an anthropomorphic relationship with the animals regardless of their inherent traits and characteristics. The woman’s highly polished boots suggest this is a reasonably wealthy owner.
The structure of the image is clever. The focus is clearly on the three subjects but the out of focus trees and street structure on the left emphasise the contrast with the complete figure of the chihuahua dog which is absurdly squat. It is the small dog that suggests the nature of human to pet relationship.
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