Why do I take so many photos of the dogs???????? I know part of it is that I want people to see them as something MORE than two-dimensional (yeah, I know, an oxymoron): I try to photograph them just being their essential selves...not standing "stacked" in some flat, out-of-context, cardboard cut-out image one so often sees in image postings of the dogs...the pride of the handler/owner, the arrogance of the judge...more palpable than the spirit of the dog!
Not that I want to disrespect the efforts owners and breeders put into getting their dogs out there for people to see, and shows are one of the options available to them. I am convinced many do it just for the fun of it, the camaraderie of meeting up with other Azawakh owners, etc....that for them it is not about their dog winning ribbons. But unfortunately I also know that for some segment of this dog-show-going population, it IS about winning. And that must surely be about themselves and not about the dogs. Ribbons have no meaning to the dogs! But well, off on another tangent here...and I don't mean to harsh on the judges...its just that there are so few left who remember the original dogs...and their placing of "owners" who misrepresent the archetypal qualities of the dogs will increase the likelihood of a possibly inevitable and at the least ever-encroaching extinction of one of the earth's living treasures.
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