"Stryzhennye": Dogs as an art object

EVERY DAY PHOTOGRAPHERS AROUND THE WORLD looking for new ways to tell stories or to capture what we previously did not notice. We choose interesting photo projects and ask their authors what they wanted to say. This week is the New Yorker Paul Nathan's "Groomed" series, which shoots dogs according to the rules of beauty photography.

I took most photos of the Groomed project in New Jersey during the Intergroom - this is one of the biggest grooming shows in the United States. For haircuts, by the way, answered Jorge Benderski - one of the most famous groomers in Manhattan. The main idea of the project was to capture the dogs in the way in which I and other people have not seen them. I have always been fond of beauty photography, and in this shoot, just as when working with people, I tried to convey the character of the hero and add a little humor to the portraits.

I think that a dog is a man’s best friend, and I hope that someday my family and I will be ready to start my own. I have been shooting animals for a long time, so it’s easy for me to work with them. I use the same techniques as in commercial photography - I shoot a lot of lookbooks and advertising campaigns. Sometimes it happens to me to shoot a hundred sets of clothes a day, so many movements are already honed and I work quickly. In photography itself, as a category, I am attracted to the idea of finding individuality through transformation. In my first project, "Generation Ink: Williamsburg, Brooklyn," I explored voluntary changes in appearance: young people talked about their tattoos, but dog grooming in "Groomed" is an example of forced transformations.