A screen of background foliage lends a rustic quality to this portrait of a farmer and his hound dog. The man seems friendly, if slightly shy; he leans on his car to chat, relaxed and diffident, hands in his pockets, and lips pursed. His dog looks equally unassuming, belying his sophisticated olfactory awareness of the world around him. He pants through an open mouth, conveying a sense of the warmth of the morning sunshine. Both tip their heads to shade their eyes and get a good look at the photographer. Brown spots on the hound's chest parallel the farmer's work-stained dungarees, while a lanyard around the man's neck, hidden by his overalls, appears to lead to the dogtag-like label on the front. The image presents the genial, practical cooperation between work partners whose friendship is assuring, if amusing. Somehow these two seem more intelligent than they appear. Erwitt's unusual knack for finding such reassuring complexity in the world is matched by an ability to encapsulate and share it in a single, endearing image. His love of dogs and their people is well appreciated and is the subject of several successful photobooks.

from Acton, A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame: Twentieth Century (Notre Dame, 2019)