Dimensions: unconfirmed: 390 x 305 mm
Copyright: © The estate of Keith Arnatt | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: Here we have Keith Arnatt's "Walking the Dog." Editor: What a melancholy photograph. That poor dog looks positively mortified! Curator: Arnatt, born in 1930, explored conceptual art. This image challenges conventional representation. The banality of the title clashes with the carefully staged composition. Think about how gender roles are presented, how class is subtly performed. Editor: It's the very picture of suburban ennui, isn't it? The bleakness! The leash looks like a measuring tape. Is this a portrait of… control? Or conformity? I feel bad for the dog. Curator: The work, devoid of sentimentality, invites us to question the power dynamics within seemingly ordinary scenes. Editor: It makes me wonder, are we all just walking someone else's dog?
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Walking the Dog is a large series of black and white photographs of individuals standing outside with their dogs. While the locations depicted in the photographs vary from street pavements and country lanes to parks and gardens, all the images in this series share consistent formal characteristics: in each case the single owner stands full-length in the centre of the image facing the camera with the dog at their feet, and no other human or animal can be seen within the tightly framed square shot.
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