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Friends for life: Meet the dogs who were always by Bruce Weber’s side

‘The Golden Retriever Photographic Society’ is Weber’s first career-spanning collection of his famed dog photographs

Independent Staff

Monday 13 December 2021 11:33 GMT

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The Official Meeting of the Montana Rolleiflex Camera Club, Little Bear Ranch, McLeod, Montana, 1997 (© Bruce Weber)

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The photographer and filmmaker Bruce Weber is associated with a wide array of imagery: humanist portraits of artists, actors and athletes; fashion spreads charged with emotion, irreverence, and nostalgia; lyrical tributes to eroticism and an arcadian vision of the American landscape.

All these things – and golden retrievers, too. Since the very beginning, Weber has been accompanied on his travels by a pack of these benevolent canines, who have populated his photographs for fashion campaigns, prominent magazines, and the pages of his personal scrapbooks in equal measure.

The gang, Golden Beach, Florida, 2017 (© Bruce Weber)

Blue, photographing the dog wedding for Vogue, Miami, Florida, 1998 (© Bruce Weber)

The gang at Little Bear Ranch, McLeod, Montana, 1995 (© Bruce Weber)

Christian Hogue, Santa Barbara, California, 2013 (© Bruce Weber)

The gang, freak snowstorm, August, Little Bear Ranch, McLeod, Montana, 1992 (© Bruce Weber)

The Golden Retriever Photographic Society is Weber’s first career-spanning collection of these photographs, one he describes as his most personal.

“People sometimes say to me, ‘In my next life, I want to come back as one of your dogs’,” says Weber.

For five decades, these golden retrievers have been foils for Weber’s imagination, storybook characters in the expansive life he has created with his wife, Nan Bush. This book celebrates the human-animal bond, illuminating how connection to one’s pets can fuel creativity, provide companionship and foster an abundance of joy.