"Manhatten Dogfight"

29.05.04
Contacts
The Saturday Times Magazine

printer friendly version

PHOTOGRAPHER DAFYDD JONES
YEAR 1990
LOCATION NEW YORK

The high point of New York’s canine calendar is the dog show that takes place in Madison square every February. It is a little like Crufts, and on the last evening a cocktail party is held for the owners. When Dafydd Jones photographed the event for Vanity Fair in 1990, some of the owners brought along their dogs. “There were a few grand socialite New Yorkers there: Brooke Astor with her dachshund Dolly, and Iris Love with her dachshund called Just Deserts. They were both great dachshund lovers and wouldn’t be seperated from their dogs. They were posing for me with their sleek little dogs, dressed up in ruffs and glamorous collars, standing among some other rather more dowdy dog-owner’s. I remember Brooke Astor saying to me what funny expressions the dogs had. She had quite a twinkle in her eye.”
Then this relatively ordinary situation suddenly came alove. “A plate of bone-shaped canapes appeared, sitting innocently on a white paper doily, and the two ladies lost control of their dogs. I was using a Leica and I knew that I’d got the picture. I saw it through the viewfinder with the flash.” Jones had caught the four expressions like a dream- Just deserts in the 17th-century ruff intent upon the food, Dolly with eyes rolling and ear flying, and the two soignee ladies, unaccustomed to the rude riot on their hands. “Brooke Astor loved it. She’s now over 100, but apparently she still talks about this picture.”
JOANNA PITMAN