Tokyo Dogs
Photographing dogs to talk about humansAs early as the 1950s, Elliott Erwitt offered a humorous perspective on our relationship with domestic animals with his series DOGS and photographs like Dogs, New York, USA, circa 1950, depicting a small dog wearing a sweater, standing next to the feet of its owner.
Continuing the tradition of street photography, the TOKYO DOGS series, created between 2022 and 2025, questions the evolution of our relationship with animals in contemporary urban societies by spontaneously capturing the everyday lives of dogs and their owners in Tokyo's public spaces, without staging.
Photographing dogs to talk about humans; our relationship with domestic animals reflects our relationship with the world, with others, but also with our own bodies.
Throughout history, our relationship with dogs has been based both on utility (guard dogs, hunting dogs, sled dogs, companion dogs...) and on affection, trust, and mutual assistance. Is this relationship evolving with today's dogs, which have mainly become companion animals?
The trend towards anthropomorphism seems to be increasing, and dogs are increasingly considered as real human children.
Owners talk to their dogs as if they were humans, carry them like babies, or use strollers to avoid tiring them. Clothes are no longer just practical, like coats for the cold or booties to protect paws from hot sidewalks, but very often purely aesthetic, accompanied by accessories, collars, or sunglasses. Some restaurants, similar to baby seats and children's menus, offer seats and dedicated menus for dogs. Others organize birthday parties for dogs, with meals and cakes specially designed.
Could we have imagined, a few years ago, a human couple blowing out the candles on a dog's cake, made of liver and sweet potato, with their dog wearing a cone-shaped hat and drinking a carrot smoothie?
Loved not for what they do, but for what we imagine they are: dogs have now become emotional and social companions.
Owners dress, groom, and perfume their dogs, organize dog meet-ups in parks, and take group photos.
In cafes, dogs have become the main topic of conversation among their owners.
Apparently loved like children, companion dogs nevertheless seem strangely forgotten in their true animal nature by their owners.
Are they happy to wear sunglasses, blow out candles, or be carried in strollers?
Do Tokyo dogs then fit into the logic of objects described by Jean Baudrillard in 1968 in "The System of Objects", as sign-animals carrying meanings and symbols, whose natural needs and desires are sometimes neglected by their owners in favor of personal, emotional, and social desires?
This series of photographs, taken mainly in Tokyo around Yoyogi Park, aims to capture and highlight this growing phenomenon.
The photographs on this site are protected by copyright. For any commercial or non-commercial use, please contact Olivier Defaye.
