Smilin' Jake Recommends...
Things to do with your dog photos:
Custom Photo Throw
Smilin' Jake: This Dog Was Shot
367 Times, Then He Was Hung
Los Angeles--Jake, an 8-year-old Shepard/Lab mix, and his guardian, Los Angeles artist/photographer Belinda Hoosech, recently completed a yearlong photo project entitled "Smilin' Jake."
Beginning on the first day of Spring 2003 and ending on the first day of Spring 2004, Hoosech "shot" her dog every day on one of their daily walks.
"We actually started to have more of a daily 'outing' than daily walks. Although probably 90 percent of the photos were taken in the South Bay/Long Beach area, we went to Hollywood Boulevard - where Jake sat next to Lassie's star - Big Bear Lake and Pahrump, Nev. I only wish we would have been able to squeeze in a trip to the Grand Canyon," Hoosech said.
Although she was the photographer, Hoosech doesn't take all the credit for the project. She claims Jake did most of the "work."
"We'd go somewhere, I'd find a spot I liked and I'd put him on a sit/stay command. I'd take a couple of shots - maybe tell him to move 'forward,' or 'back,' or 'down' - and he learned what all that meant," she said. "Everyone who ever accompanied Jake and me on a shoot commented on how into it Jake was."
She added that the click of the camera shooting released Jake from his "pose," at which time he'd run and sit square in front of her - for his paycheck: a doggie biscuit.
"Pavlov had nothing on what Jake and I have been doing for the past year," she said. "During the holidays, I took a picture of some friends - Jake wasn't even in it - and he came running for his cookie when he heard the camera go off!"
Hoosech said she also must credit Josh Serafin and his "Sunset Resolution" as her inspiration.
"I was greatly influenced and motivated by Serafin's piece. I saw it at a '1st Thursday' event in San Pedro and bought a poster-sized litho. The more I looked at it, the more I wondered 'What could I be dedicated to (do) on a daily basis for a year?'" Hoosech said. "One day, the answer just smiled at me from across the living room floor."
She said she tried not to rely on props for the photos and tried to incorporate art into her art as much as possible.
"I wanted the pictures to reflect more about all the great places Jake and I went, not so much that I could get him to wear sunglasses," she said. "We found hundreds of murals around the area and visited the Pasadena Chalk Festival last July. We also discovered lots of great landscaping and - Jake's favorites - fountains."
Check back to see where "Smilin' Jake"-the 10-foot by 8-foot collage--will be on exhibit next. Or send e-mail to whereisjake@smilinjake.com.