Special Exhibitions

It's a Dog's Life: Photographs by William Wegman from the Polaroid Collection
October 11, 2008–January 4, 2009

It’s a Dog’s Life: Photographs by William Wegman from the Polaroid Collection includes 29 photographs by one of the art world’s best known photographers. The prints on view will feature Wegman’s now-famous pet Weimaraner, Fay Ray, successor to his original dog of the same breed, Man Ray.

Wegman composes his photographs very carefully, giving extraordinary attention to the pose and lighting of his subject. Some of his Polaroid images continue Wegman’s penchant for dressing-up his subject in zany costumes and disguises, while others appear to be serious portraits—studies of his dog’s physical form that become studies in abstraction.

 Wegman is one of several artists who have completed special projects using Polaroid’s amazing large-format instant camera, which weighs 235 pounds. Polaroid created it to make large format instant photography available for a wide spectrum of uses, from getting close-up magnified views of Raphael's Transfiguration for the Vatican Museum to taking color portraits of President Clinton at the White House. The photographs in the exhibition are typical of those produced using this special camera, measuring 20 x 24 inches.

The national tour of It’s a Dog’s Life: Photographs by William Wegman from the Polaroid Collection is coordinated by the Museum of Florida Art.

 

Parallelogram, 1990. Polaroid 20 x 24 Polacolor film. © William Wegman, courtesy the Polaroid Collections.

Related Programs
It's a Dog's Life Party
Artrageous! Family Sunday
Adult Artist Workshop
Teen Artist Workshop