London’s Little Black Gallery opens it’s doors to a display of Martin Usborne’s photographs on the curious relationship between humans and animals – ‘The Silence of Dogs in Cars’.
The seed for the idea of creating this project has been planted in his childhood, when he used to wait in a car whilst his parents were shopping in a supermarket, and the youthful fear that they might not return. The project, which has been shot over three years, examines these exact, dark feelings of sadness and dejections experienced by dogs left in cars with rather emotive, and often amusing, results.
However, dog owners who leave their beloved, four-legged friends may breathe again – Usborne doesn’t find his subjects in supermarket car parks. All photographs are set up, sometimes even in his studio, with careful planning – he even goes as far as matching the dog with the car for a maximum impact. He sourced his subjects by approaching dog owners whilst walking his own dog and he then finds the cars and locations. Usborne described the process: “Although bewildered at first, it was incredible to see how many strangers were so eager to help our and let their dog be photographed.”
Usborne also stated that “the camera is the perfect tool for capturing a sense of silence and longing. The silence freezes the shutter forever and two layers of glass are placed between the viewer and the viewed: the glass of the lens, the lass of the picture frame and, in this instance, the glass of the car window further isolates the animal. The dog is truly trapped.” And Usborne clearly knows what he is talking about – his staged and cinematic images of these dogs gazing silently through car windows definitely evoke a mood of loneliness and longing in me.
Photographs of pets are often merely dismissed as cute but Usborne hopes that his audience will see something more in this work. “When I finally took the first picture,” Usborne explained, “I began to understand where it all came from: fears of being alone, unheard, fears being like an animal with no human voice.”
Usborne states that he is usually surprised by how his project is received, he goes on and explains that “few people get what the project is about: the feeling of isolation. The dog is a metaphor for the parts of ourselves that we keep locked away, that we aren’t able to express. But then again it’s always nice to see a cute dog looking out of a car, so I get why people respond to it on the surface level as well.”
Ultimately, the photographs of ‘The Silence of Dogs in Cars’ are more studies in separation rather then portraits of dogs. On one level they refer to the separation between human and animals but on another level they also refer to the separation within ourselves: between our everyday persona and the rawer, maybe more animalistic part, that we keep safely locked away.
Martin Usborne has been born in 1973 in London where he still lives and works. He focuses his practice mainly on portraits of both, humans and animals. He has published two books so far, ‘I’ve lived in Hoxton for 81 ½ years’ (2009) and ‘My name is Moose: modern Life through a dog’s eyes’ (2011). His work has been widely published on various art blogs and in magazines around the globe such as The New Yorker, Burn Magazine, Foto8, The Guardian, The Independent, Das Magazin and the British Journal of Photography amongst many others.
Usborne’s book ‘The Silence of Dogs in Cars’ was awarded Best in Show in the Creative Review Photography Annual 2012. He was also the recipient of the 2009 Taylor Wessing Award at the National Portrait Gallery for his photograph ‘Tiger, Rag, Johnny and Emma’.
The Silence of Dogs in Cars
Photographs by Martin Usborne
19 March 2013 – 27 April 2013
The Little Black Gallery
13A Park Walk
London SW10 0AJ
UK
Tel: 020-7349 9332.
Opening hours: Monday-Friday 11am-1pm & 2-6pm, Saturday 11am-4pm
Martin Usborne is doing a book signing on Saturday March, 23rd at the gallery from 11.30am – 12.30pm.
Pre-order a copy of Martin Usborne’s book ‘The Silence of Dogs in Cars’ here: martinoliver.myshopify.com
