Crossing

William Wegman is best known for his photographs and videos of Weimaraner dogs, which began when he got his first dog, Man Ray, in 1970. He got his second dog, Fay Ray, in 1986, and her offspring have since provided Wegman with an unlimited supply of dog-models. Wegman’s works are often whimsical, featuring his dogs wearing human clothing or with their heads atop human bodies. The image here first appears to be a triptych showing eleven dogs in a long boat in front of a hazy landscape; however, it is not what it seems. The triptych is not a panorama of a single scene, but rather three separate, staged pictures, with the same background repeated across the three images. Only four dogs were posed in a small boat that, in the photograph, appears elongated to hold eleven.