WELL HEELED

Dougie Wallace had enough of getting chased down the road and told to delete the picture he’s just taken; he’s now turned his camera on man’s best friend and the strange world of pet parents. Dogs don’t talk back and their owners stand by with pleasure while their 'offspring’ leap around enjoying being snapped. Anthropomorphic parents spend as much on pet grooming as they would on their own hair. Dougie Wallace has used his acute observation and innate wit to portray this phenomenon in his new series Well Heeled. Wallace’s dogs have human expressions, humorous thoughts and collude with the viewer with knowing eyes to camera. Well Heeled shot in Milano, London and New York, captures details in a dog's eye view that bipeds wouldn’t normally see. Behind the coiffured and pampered ‘children in fur coats’ the focus is on their claws, their paw pads, their incisors, drool drenched beards and watery eyes. Their canine traits erupt throughout the photographs and leave the viewer in no doubt that they are animals who would rather be chasing rabbits in a field and chewing bones than getting carried about wearing a Swarovski crystal encrusted collars and Louis Vuitton lead.