Editorial Reviews The New York Times Book Review, Anita Gates Canine New Yorkers are a lot like their human counterparts, as can be seen in New York Dogs.... If Mohin's view has a flaw, it is that she sometimes makes a New York dog's life look a little better than it really is. Review
Reviews From:
The New York Times
New York Post
By Anita Gates
Covered With Fur in the Naked City
Canine New Yorkers are a lot like their human counterparts, as can be seen in NEW YORK DOGS, a collection of photographs by Andrea Mohin, a staff photographer of The New York Times. For some, city life is all about career: the airport luggage inspectors, professional models, police detectives, arson investigators, guides, guards and trackers. For some, there is time for charity work: making an appearance at the A.S.P.C.A. walkathon in Central Park, for instance, or visiting the elderly at a Bronx nursing home. And of course there are layabouts, like Kiko, the soulful-eyed American Staffordshire terrier who spends his days on a stool at a Greenwich Village bar. The 55 black-and-white photographs reveal a preference for relatively large dogs (Rottweilers, German shepherds, Labrador mixes). This may leave cuteness addicts hungry for just one more Pomeranian in a backpack or the equivalent. They will like Dancer, a Chinese crested powder puff, relaxing on a chaise longue on a penthouse terrace. If Mohin's view has a flaw, it is that she sometimes makes a New York dog's life look a little better than it really is. Never mind what taste treat the English bulldog is desperately trying to reach in that silver chafing dish. How did he get into the buffet line at Tavern on the Green?
A dog's life?
Hardly looks like it for the pooches prowling this city that are captured in New York Dogs, a charming book of canine urbanity by photographer Andrea Mohin with Vicki Hearne.
Lest you think otherwise, the 60 pooch portraits defy the myth that city life is unsuitable for dogs, something Mohin, a New York Times photographer, even believed before coming to the Big Apple six years ago.
"I soon began to realize how much New Yorkers loved their animals and how these dog owners had carved out their own place in the city," says Mohin, 39.
Few dogs are as sophisticated as Gotham's four-legged creatures, she notes. They walk the walk (with their dog walkers), release and relax in yoga classes and even check out the victuals in restaurant buffet lines.
And like that old saying goes that dog owners eventually come to resemble their pets, Mohin's lens confirms that a dog's life comes to resemble their owner's.
From play dates to frou-frou grooming to bathing in the spray of an open hydrant, Mohin, a two-dog owner (stray mutts she rescued from the New York streets) says "there's a whole social strata."
Dogs are New York characters, says Mohin, who is donating a portion of the book's proceeds to Pets Alive, an animal sanctuary in Middleton.
Take a look. There's Barley, a miniature Schnauzer, who dons an S & M-looking Ninja costume for a Halloween contest in Tompkins Square Park. And a very confident Goalie, Mayor Rudy Giuliani's yellow lab, pictured giving Hizzoner a wet buss inside City Hall.
How about the pair of Pomeranians, Quola and Pikaso, seen popping out of a leather backpack and perched on a human shoulder? And of course, the doleful-looking Dalmation staring out of a cab heading south on Park Avenue.
"Thank God for the red light," says Mohin, who jumped out of her car to retrieve her camera in the truck not to miss the shot. (She tailed the taxi snapping away).
Still doubt New York's dogs are like people?
Well Mohin even had to get releases signed to permit use of their furry images for her book.
New York Dogs
New York Dogs,Vicki Hearne,Andrea Mohin,Chronicle Books LLC,0811816583,Collections Of Photographs,Collections, Catalogs, Exhibitions,Dogs,New York (State),Photo Essays,Photography,Photography of dogs,Pictorial works,Photography / General
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