To celebrate its 50th anniversary, Royal Canin pays tribute to the relationship between men and dogs, everyday heroes, with Compagnons, two exhibitions of photographs by the Dutch artist Charlotte Dumas, who has always been passionate about the relationship between man and animal.
FLAIR Galerie presents, from September 19 to November 24, 2018, a selection of her photographs made between 2009 and 2011, as well as those extracted from an assignment by Royal Canin this year. These are exhibited in parallel on the gates of the Summer Garden, boulevard des Lices, from September 19 to October 3, 2018. The visitor will discover portraits of dogs and cats, companions of everyday life in the service of human.
On this occasion, a book is published by Glénat.
Photographing is going to meet each other, the photographers often say. With Charlotte Dumas, the formula takes on a particular meaning because her models are not men but animals.
However, in 2011, when she chose to portray the dogs that took part in the search for survivors in the rubble of September 11 in New York and the Pentagon, she treated them as equals. In fact, Charlotte Dumas seeks first to know them better, in the manner of those documentary authors who carry out an interview with their models before photographing them. The goal ? to discover what they became ten years later, having been struck by their bravery – “The pictures of these dogs published in the newspapers in 2001 are deeply inked in my memory” – and capture their character and soul to better highlight their personality.
Thus Charlotte Dumas avoids any superfluous effects both in terms of staging and decorum. In the house of their masters, in the four corners of the United States and in their daily lives that she went to photograph them. A form of natural simplicity that helps to humanize them. Guinness, Brittany or Orion II face the photographer, eyes looking at her lens, both touching and dignified …
Whether for her personal work or assignment, such as this year for Royal Canin, Charlotte Dumas did not choose her models by chance. They are “working” dogs, whether they are in the service of a fire brigade or the blind … More than companions, they are heroes!
Sophie Bernard. July 2018
COMPANIONS – PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHARLOTTE DUMAS
2 exhibitions on the occasion of 50 years of Royal Canin
With the support of the City of Arles
FLAIR Gallery from September 19th to November 24th, 2018
Grids of the Summer Garden, Arles from September 19th to October 3rd, 2018
FLAIR Galerie
11, rue de la Calade
13200 Arles – France
