Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent.
To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden,
where doing nothing was not boring - it was peace.
Milan Kundera
© Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt, Naked Dog, Belgium, 1993
© Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt, Madère, 1994
© Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt, Dogs, France, 1994
© Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt, Roadmender, Scotland, 1992
© Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt, Daisy, France, 1996
© Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt, Mauritius, 1991
Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt, Mènagerie du Cirque Knie. Reinach. Suisse. 1990
Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt, Courtepin. Suisse. 1990
© Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt, Swiss, 1990
© Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt
© Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt
© Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt
© Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt
© Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt, Germany, 1978
© Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt, Germany, 1981
© Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt, Ueno's Zoo, Japan, Tokyo, July 1996
© Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt, Swiss, 1991
© Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt, USA, New York, 1982
© Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt
All images © Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt
Coming from a tradition of reportage linked intimately with the press, he began his personal work with ensembles devoted to the “Concours belges” and immigrants to his country. Since he began looking through his Leica’s viewfinder, he has created pure and elegant photographs marked by a constant sense of humour. This balance has allowed him to adopt a fair and playful distance from what is going on before his eyes. His resulting compositions are arranged with a steady eye while managing to transform real life moments into often mysterious images without reverting to the anecdotal.
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I can't help but notice the open space and proximity to humans that the dogs have in the earlier photographs, compared to the different "cages" and (usually glass) barriers that the creatures in later photographs are in. The only time they share the same space as the humans are as a skeleton and as a drawing.
ReplyDeleteThe text from Milan Kundera reminded me of this little animation, I think you might like to see it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV0PJKgFIUs
Hope you have a great New Year Sofie!