Charlotte Dumas – A Terra – PhotoBook Journal

Review by Hans Hickerson ·

Photography is a medium, a tool. There are many ways to use it, and you do not have to be interested in pursuing photography’s traditional concerns to use it effectively. Charlotte Dumas’ photobook A Terra is a good example of this. She uses photographs to explore and present a topic visually, and the photographs are about the thing itself rather than about creating a photographic style.

The book is highly intelligent in terms of its visuals and its design, which is satisfyingly understated and accessible, and its subject is tender and touching and more than memorable. I acquired it before I began reviewing photobooks, and it sat on my shelf for a year until I looked at it again recently and decided I wanted to share it in a review.

A Terra is about the feral street dogs of Palermo, Italy. Most of the 120 photographs are of single dogs lying on the ground, with only a few photos of dogs sitting or standing. The dogs are mostly sleeping – curled up, sprawled on their sides, or on their backs with their legs in the air. We see them in the street, on the sidewalk, on pieces of cardboard, in doorways and on steps, and snuggled up against a fence, behind a hedge, and in boxes and holes.

Viewed from where I live, the idea of packs of feral urban dogs living alongside humans seems exotic. The climate and social culture here would not allow it. People would worry about rabies and feral dogs attacking their pets and would call animal control. Plus the puppies would probably be eaten by our urban coyotes.

The photographs of dogs in A Terra are mostly closeups looking down, but sometimes the view is from the ground at the same level as the dogs. On the same page we see different dogs or multiples of the same dog viewed from varied angles or at particular moments. We see individual dogs in the same pose or in contrasting poses.

The editing and pacing are nuanced, with themes and variations explored through repetition as well as contrast. The pages are often laid out as a grid of eight, four, or two photographs or sometimes one image on a two-page spread. Three of the images are paintings of dogs that echo the poses of the dogs in the photos.

We do not see the dogs interacting with people, and there is only one photograph where a person appears in the far background. It is clear that this is not a documentary reportage on the stray dogs of Palermo. We see no young puppies, for example, and no photos of dogs eating or interacting with humans or other packs of dogs. Instead the dogs are pictured resting and sleeping. They are not aggressive or annoying. They are sympathetic and vulnerable, dignified and worthy of our respect and understanding. They are presented as independent creatures living their lives and freely going about their street-dog business.

Dumas writes that the street dogs of Palermo make her “…think about our mortality and about the space we occupy in regard to others, individually and as humans alongside other sentient beings. About what it means to belong, to a pack and to a species. I feel a sense of longing observing these dogs that together form a collective body, gentle and humble.”

In A Terra Charlotte Dumas brings us closer to fellow animals with whom we share the planet. She helps us see things from their point of view and to think about our relationship with them. And as we see in the photograph on the cover, she makes us want to reach out and touch them.

Hans Hickerson, Editor of the PhotoBook Journal, is a photographer and photobook artist from Portland, Oregon.

PhotoBook Journal previously reviewed Charlotte Dumas’ Al Lavoro!

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Charlotte Dumas – A Terra

Photographer: Charlotte Dumas (born in 1977; lives in Amsterdam)

Language: English

Text: Charlotte Dumas

Design: Willem van Zoetendaal

Printing: Rob Stolk Printers, Amsterdam

Softcover with printed dust jacket; 120 photographs; Japanese / French folded; 48 pages; 18 x 27 cm; ISBN 9789072532541

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