William Wegman: Dogs on Rocks

Dogs on Rocks is a volume of new photographs of William Wegman's famous Weimaraners, taken while he was in residence at The Acadia Summer Arts Program in Maine or at his own home in Maine. Many of these stunning shots--of the dogs alone, in pairs or in groups--take advantage of the breathtaking vistas of Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island, where the program is located. Wegman's formal portraits of the animals are framed by the natural beauty and muted tones of the island's forest and rocky beach. "I don't feel lonely when I'm around them," Wegman has said about his beloved dogs, "But I love also listening to them. I always make sure I spend some time just seeing what they're really doing. Especially outside, you know, when you're alone with them. Because so many people, including myself, fill in a whole vocabulary for them that is ours and not theirs. I remember spending some time for the first time with Man Ray, my first dog. I didn't talk that day. I just listened to what he was listening to, the whole aura of smells and sounds and sights and things that he was picking up on during that day." The Acadia Summer Arts Program was founded by Marion Boulton Stroud, the founder of The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, where she is the Artistic Director.
William Wegman was born in 1943 in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Though he studied painting, Wegman gradually began to develop an interest in photography and video, the mediums for which he remains known. In the early 1970s, he moved to Southern California and began a long and fruitful collaboration with his first dog, Man Ray--who endeared himself to the art world with his deadpan presence. Wegman has added several dogs to his cast in the course of his nearly 40-year career. In addition to maintaining a presence in the art world, he has published a number of children's books and has created film and video works for Saturday Night Live and Sesame Street. He lives and works in New York City and Maine.