Wegman World

Tele-Photo

 

Spring break in Maine.

William Wegman in The Guardian

"At the time, I was thinking about mythology and those Egyptian gods that were part-bird and part-human, so that filtered through. Fay is not really wearing the dress, though: it's on a hanger that was placed round her neck like a collar as she sat on a high table. It's the hanger that makes her look as if she has human shoulders. Fay was obsessed with balls so I threw one in: it cracks the scene – and the sickening anthropomorphic notion of dressing up a dog. Fay didn't go for the ball, though. She just followed it with her eyes: Weimaraners are pointers and know innately how to be still."

Read the rest here.

Inside "Slow Guitar"

 

William Wegman, Slow Guitar, 1987

Slow Guitar is from the second year of working with Fay at the polaroid studio in nyc. I'm not sure where I picked up the red guitar but it was not unusual for me at the time to pick up random props at the spur of the moment on the way to the studio.

 

Fay was afraid of the city, petrified of street noises. It was torture getting Fay to the studio, but once there she was comfortable and very happy. She acted, and was treated, like a queen. She liked John Reuter, who I had been working with since the early eighties, and the couch and the fact that there would be lunch.  What's not to like?

It was hard at first to figure out what to do with the guitar. I didn't want to repeat Blue Period, a riff on Picasso I had done with Man Ray, Fay's predecessor. Instead of using the modeling stand to begin to work, I dragged the couch over from the dressing room and Fay snuggled in. I layed the guitar over her, and when she didn't object, I snapped the shutter. About 70 seconds later the black was peeled off to reveal the image you see here. One or two more were taken but this was The One. It is one of my personal favorites.

Tele-Photo

Alligators spotted in NYC.

The Fay Show

 

In honor of Fay's birthday yesterday, have a look at this video made for the exhbition Fay, that traveled to the Akron Museum of Art in 2009.

Eureka: William Wegman Photographs 1970 - 1975

Opening reception Friday November 8, 6pm.

Monday Pupday

Monday Pupday

Monday Pupday

Monday Pupday

William Wegman, Riddles and Roses, 1999