All photos courtesy of Julie Saul Gallery
My dear friend Laurie Kratochvil sent me this marvelous book to peek at. My first reaction as a dog owner was pure glee and fascination; but the more I looked at the pictures and the way the objects are photographed, they became a tad sad and that's what I love about them. I am even more in awe after hearing what Arne Svenson had to say about the work! "When photographing the Chewed series, I tried to see the toys through the eyes of the pet and photograph them accordingly, taking loving, almost regal portraits which elevate the subject to its rightful place of honor in the pet's eyes. One of the pivotal inspirational points for the series came from the following quote I stumbled upon from the Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams Bianco: "Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand"."