Photo by Ann Marsden

Mary Ludington specializes in fine art animal photography through commissioned portraiture and personal work. She has received numerous awards; her photographs are exhibited nationally and are collected throughout the world. She participates in dog conformation, field trial and earth dog sports and devotes time to dog and horse rescue efforts. Her website is www.maryludington.com.

Frequently Asked Questions:

How long did this work take you and how did it begin?
I began making photographs of dogs about twelve years ago, when my partner and I adopted a shelter dog. We then added a Dachshund to our family and decided to show him. As I met more dogs at dog shows and training classes I set a goal to photograph every AKC breed, currently 153 breeds. The book represents about ten years of work.

Why Purebreds? Do you photograph mixed breeds?
Mixed breeds are mixes of purebreds and the purebreds we know today have many breeds in their backgrounds. I appreciate all dogs; mixed breeds, AKC purebreds, breeds from other registries. The Nature of Dogs also includes the Dogue de Bordeaux and a Blue Tick Coonhound, which are not an AKC breeds, but beautiful dogs. My goal with each dog was to make a meaningful portrait. The dogs in the book range from family companions to champions to Westminster group winners.

The Nature of Dogs includes many of the most popular breeds; the Labrador Retriever, Yorkshire Terrier, German Shepherd Dog, Golden Retriever, Beagle, Dachshund, Boxer, Poodle, Shih Tzu, Miniature Schnauzer, Chihuahua, Bulldog and Pug as well as less common breeds such as the Puli and the Pharaoh Hound.

Did this project take you somewhere you didn’t expect?
I had been making photographs of zoo animals and horses before I started photographing dogs. In those images, I worked to bring the viewer closer – emotionally – to animals that are not part of most people’s daily experience.

When I began working with dogs, animals with which we already share a strong connection, I felt that I needed to make them more distant from us in order to reveal something new about them. I try to bypass the sentimental layer and bring out the dog as it stands alone, apart from our affection for them and to make an image that is more mysterious, more reverential. Of course, it is impossible to avoid the gregarious, positive nature of dogs and many of the photographs reveal their joy, their bliss, and their eternal optimism.

You titled this book The Nature of Dogs, but for most of us, that’s an individual relationship—the relationship we have with our own dog(s). It seems that in this book you’re trying to shift the way we look at that relationship to encompass something more elemental, or maybe existential?
This project lead me to look at how our relationship with dogs might actually get in the way of our really knowing them. Our affection for them can be so profound that it is easy to be satisfied by that feeling; we aren’t compelled to want to know more.

When trainers insist “dogs aren’t people”, I used to hear that as “don’t love your dog so much” or “dogs are lower forms”. My experience, following this in-depth study, is that I have a deeper respect for them, a better understanding of their behavior, and new awareness that while they are definitely not people, they are more extraordinary than I ever knew. It sure hasn’t made me love them any less; it has in fact motivated me to get my dogs out in new woods, new fields as much as I can. One can follow that existential path as far as one cares to go! For me, I now find myself working harder to push past my emotional conclusion or assumptions — about everything.

Is it even possible to talk about the nature of dogs without talking about the nature of the dog-human relationship?
No, I don’t think so. But I think pulling the two apart for a moment so that we can see each other as separate, actually makes the relationship more meaningful.

How has that dog-human relationship changed over time?
In the most basic way, aside from the toy breeds, the larger breeds have moved from their utilitarian work to lives primarily as companions. After dogs were domesticated, the first working dogs served as hunting partner, war dog, guardian, herding assistant. Which is not to say that these earlier dog-human partnerships were void of mutual affection.

So many factors have lead to today’s companion dogs; political and industrial revolution, land use, availability of game, changes in hunting practices, the evolution of the gun; so much more. Dog history is a fascinating subject—one could spend a lifetime immersed in it.

But even over the past twenty to thirty years there has been such a shift. I think it speaks to our own evolution. Every generation becomes more aware than the previous, we hope, and with that comes a deeper respect for all living beings.
I think what we are witnessing as the ‘phenomenon’ of dogs today coincides with maturing of the baby boomers. Not that there aren’t younger people who are committed to giving their dogs the best lives they can have. But as one gets older and priorities shift we start to let go of what might be less important to us and really embrace what we find to be meaningful. And for many people, that has become the relationship they have with their dogs.

Your book includes background information about each breed. How did you decide what information to choose and how long did the research take you?
The research into dog nature began when our rescue dog, Charger, came into our lives. He had been a stray dog and had many behavior challenges. Working to understand him and what triggers a behavior lead me to the wealth of good information about every imaginable aspect of dogs. From there I immersed myself in Dachshund history, then other breeds’ histories. I enjoyed learning about all of the breeds.

There is so much good information and beautiful writing about dogs. Narrowing down to a small amount for each breed was challenging. I looked for what I felt best revealed a breed’s essence; form and function, origin, their evolution through selective breeding. I was enormously assisted by researcher and writer Jaime Kleiman, writers Emily August, Camille McArdle, DVM, Sarah Peirce and Sarah Sawyer, and editors Kevin Fenton and J.T. Lowen in bringing each breed description to its final form.

You describe this book as a modern-day bestiary, where did that idea come from?
I was drawn to the medieval bestiaries for their reverence toward nature, their early (though not always accurate) scientific information, their illustrations and their purpose: to educate, provoke thought and improve moral character.

Kari Finkler, book artist and the book’s designer, must be credited for bringing the vision to its final form. One could not hope for a better collaborator! Her understanding and appreciation of these medieval texts and her artistry in bringing their signature elements to the book’s design make it the bestiary I’d hoped it could be.

How did you choose the Essayists who contributed original pieces to the book?
I am so honored to have these provocative writers’ pieces in the book. They are all heroes of mine; Temple Grandin, Mary Gaitskill and Peter Trachtenberg, Patricia Hampl, Kevin Kling, James Hillman and Winona LaDuke. My goal for the interior pieces was to present new information, rather than personal memoir. Each writer expounds on a different aspect of dog nature with such depth and elegance. Patricia Hampl’s foreword, about her Lily, is the most exquisite tribute that I’ve ever read. It is a beautiful and perfect invitation to the book.

Many of your photographs, while black and white, have color and different tones. How do you decide to approach each photograph?
I still shoot film, 35mm and 120mm and work in a ‘wet darkroom’ where so much of the work on each portrait continues to happen. It is where the subtle choices are made; cropping, diffusion, paper surface and base color (bright white or off white) and whether and how to tone the print. Toning the print is much like painting or cooking—trying different combinations until it feels right, for the dog and for the image. I then hand-color some photographs with photo oils to achieve the look and feel of the piece.

What has this long-term photography project taught you?
That people want to see and know their dogs more deeply. It has sharpened my eye for what is beautiful in every dog. It deepened my appreciation for their instincts and skills. And it showed me that owners’ generosity toward their dogs – with time, effort and attention – can be just extraordinary. There are a lot of lucky dogs out there, having a whole lot of fun; hunting, herding, agility, flyball, tracking, obedience, games. I want to come back as one of these dogs.

Do you have a dog?
My partner, Kevin Kling, and I have three dogs: Fafnir, a ten-year old Standard Smooth Dachshund; Olive, a nine-year-old Standard Smooth Dachshund and Dan, a five-year-old Basset Hound. We also have a three-year-old Dales Pony gelding, Zeus and a fifteen-year-old cat, Mr. Wilson.