Passejant el gos. Un tribut a Keith Arnatt [Walking the Dog. A tribute to Keith Arnatt]

I came across with Keith Arnatt few years ago and I realised that in 2018 it is going to take the 10th aniversary of his dead and in 2019 it is going to be the 40th aniversary of the conclusion of his famous “Walking the Dog” series. For these two reasons (and because I also like to walk with my dog) I decided to undertake this work as a homage to what he did.

My project consists in self-publishing a photobook with 50 portraits of people with their dogs (or 50 dogs with their humans, depending on how you look at). It is an analog photography work in black and white taked in the town where I live: La Roca del Vallès. The camera I have used is a Rolleiflex T loaded with Ilford HP5+ 120 film. The negatives have been scanned with an Epson V800 in order to be able to make the print.

My process adopts the idea of Arnatt and transfer it from Tintern (Wales) - where he did the “Walking the Dog” series - to La Roca. It is a local work but with an universal reach, a series that pretends to show the uniqueness of each human being as well as these dogs. All portraits are the same but all are different in order to continue the way as Arnatt was able to see the difference in uniformity and serialization.

Images pretend to have the same characteristics as Arnatt's photographs:

1- Be in black and white

2- Produced with chemical procedures

3- Be in square format

4- Obtained from exteriors

5- Persons and dogs have to look directly at the camera

6- All people have to be inhabitants of the town where the photographer lives and

7- Without any other person or animal

Formal characteristics of the book

The book will be printed hardcover with a velvety finish. Its format will be square, 21x21cm, and it will have about 70 pages printed in black and white laser quality on coated stucco paper of 150 gr / m2.

ALL PURCHASES OF BOOKS AND PHOTOS INCLUDE:

• Every book will be personalized with the name of the patron
• All books will be signed and dedicated by the author
• Shipments are certified
• Every patron's name will appear on the list of "Book patrons" (included in the book)
• A postcard (and a little surprise)

Who I am?

I am a professor of Art History and a photographer. Before teaching I had worked for a few years as a graphic reporter. Therefore I have done individual photographic exhibitions in Barcelona, ​​Céret, Mataró, Granollers and La Roca del Vallès and I have also participated in a large number of collective ones.

Nowadays I am devoted to analog photography, which I 'cook slowly' in a home-based lab. My genres are the emotional landscape, street photography and portrait, most of them in black and white. The reality is not black and white but reality's essence it is. Artistically, I'm approaching more and more to the conceptual. Now I wish to publish my second book. This is the reason why I ask you for a collaboration.

What will I allocate your contributions?

The 1300 € I ask for is to pay:
+ The printout of the 175 copies of the book
+ The corresponding VAT
+ The Verkami commission
+ The banking commission
+ The ISBN of the book

If this amount is exceeded the surplus would be dedicated to:
+ Print more books, if applicable
+ Improve rewards with the gift of a photographic work
+ Finance the production of an itinerant exhibition with all photographs

Schedule

Once the campaign has finished on the 26th of May , I will collect all the information (I need a list of all your names to bring to the printing press in order to include them in each book). Then I will be able to send the book to the printing press about 30th of May and seven working days later I will have them available. Therefore, I will begin to send the first book by the 13th of June. The delivery of the books in hand will be done the day 21 of June in the Centre Cultural de La Roca del Vallès (awaiting confirmation).

Prologue

The book has a prologue written by the artist and professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Barcelona (UB), Marta Juvanteny

Some links where you can see my photographic work:

www.joansorolla.cat
Gallery on Flickr
My profile on Twitter