Pup art: Polaroids of William Wegman’s loyal Weimaraners

In 1979 the Polaroid Corporation invited artist William Wegman to work with their recently developed 20x24 camera, only a handful of which were ever made. Unlike the handheld Polaroid series, these vast, wood-clad cameras created pictures that were 20 inches by 24 inches in size. Other artists who used them included Andy Warhol and Chuck Close.

In this new medium Wegman made some of his first colour photographs, of his dog Man Ray, named after the Dada artist. The curious pooch had already starred in a number of artworks after inserting himself into Wegman's conceptual video pieces.

Wegman used the camera, and a cast of Weimaraners, to explore abstraction, surrealism, cubism and colour theory, working with the camera until 2007, when Polaroid stopped producing film. Man Ray was followed by Fay Ray, and her litter of puppies later became his subjects too. He currently works with brother and sister Flo and Topper. Wegman has described how the breed is naturally good at standing still because they are 'pointers' and so bred to freeze and point to an animal.

Speaking to Great Big Story, Wegman says: "In my photographs what I like people to see is – yes, there is a dog, and yes, it is a Weimaraner – but what has it become? The dogs are always in a state of becoming something. They become characters, objects, when they are lying down they become landscapes."

William Wegman: Polaroids is at Huxley-Parlour Gallery from 26 September to 20 October 2018.