Biography
 
William Wegman grew up in Western Massachusetts, attended art school in Boston and Illinois, taught in Wisconsin, then made his way out to California in 1970 where he got his first Weimaraner. He named him Man Ray. Man Ray became a central figure in Wegman’s photographs and videotapes, known in the art world and beyond for his endearing deadpan presence. In 1972 Wegman and Man Ray moved to New York and continued this collaboration which lasted twelve years. In 1982, Man Ray was named “Man of the Year” by the Village Voice.
 
Wegman’s photographs, videotapes, paintings and drawings have been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally. A retropective of his work traveled to museums throughout Europe and the United States including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. His most reccent exhibitions include travelling retrospectives of his work in Japan and the United States and a large scale survey of his drawings in France. In addition to video segments that have appeared regularly on Sesame Street since 1989, William Wegman has also created film and video works for Saturday Night Live and Nickelodeon. In 1996, Wegman’s film The Hardly Boys in Hardly Gold, starring his favorite actors, was screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Wegman’s most recent video, Mother Goose (Sony Wonder/ Children’s Television Workshop) had its World Premier Screening this year at the Chicago Children’s International Film Festival. His other works include the books, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, ABC, 123, Circle Triangle Square, Farm Days and Mother Goose (all Hyperion), and the videos Alphabet Soup, Fay’s Twelve Days of Christmas. (WarnerVision).
 
 
 
Video
My video from the 70's invloved a closed circuit set up whereby I performed to the live image on the monitor and not to the camera. I could be looking at myself in profile at the same time as the recording. I am attentive to the closed mirrorlike nature of video...the almost mesmerizing effect of the image in the monitor in relation to the subject.
 
I think I am a very tech sensitive artist in that I don't over reach the media. In fact, I revel in the limits.
 
 
How many dogs do you have?
That’s a complicated question. The simple answer is two. The complicated answer is four. I live with two and work with two more.
 
Do the dogs mind being dressed?
No. I never treat it as a joke. I go about dressing them in a routine matter of fact manner never allowing them to be submitted to ridicule. Their time dressed is usually only seconds until the exposure is made. In film or video its more complicated and they are up a little longer. Every dog is an individual. Chundo doesn’t like to sit long but is the most eager to work. Chip doesn’t mind hats. Chundo does. Batty falls asleep while posing with or without costume. Crooky, like Chundo is eager and some what hyper although she stays really well. She looks great in blond wigs (see Goldilocks video) but they do hide her magnificent ears. Batty always looks sweet and dreamy. Fay looked evil in wigs.. hence her role as stepmother in Cinderella.
 
How did you get started?
My background is in painting but in school in the sixties, like many artists of that time, I believed that painting was dead. I began to work in collaboration with other artists in music and technology in the creation of performances and installation works. Soon after I started making video pieces and photographic works .of my performances and installations and in the process became fascinated with the media itself. Before long I was setting things up just for the camera. in video and photography. In l970 I got a dog and he turned out to be very interested in video and photography as well. (see next question)
 
When did you get your first dog
September l970. I promised my wife when we moved to California (from Wisconsin) we would get a dog. She wanted a short haired male dog,, with spots,- preferably white with black. We couldn’t find any like that in the Long Beach area. Someone said Weimaraners are good dogs, and they were svelt. I had never heard of them. The next day we say an ad in the newspaper, Weimaraner puppies for sale: $ 35. We went to see. Only one male, round, plump, gray, - disinterested. She wanted him. I wasn’t sure. A coin toss would decide. Heads no Tails yes. Tails. 5 straight. We got him and brought him to our new home in San Pedro, Ca. His name came to me in a ray of inspiration. “Man Ray!” He looked like a little man. He had a lot of ideas for me.
 
Does it bother the dogs?
After 20 years of doing this, I know their limitations, what isn't good for them and what makes them unhappy, and I stay within those boundaries, or if I transgress them I don't pursue it. The cruel thing is to neglect the dog, to not work with them. Anyone who's watched us work sees that the dogs perform willingly. Sometimes they're blase about it, and sometimes they're excited or enthusiastic, but they're not afraid.
 
Do they get tired of working?
Dogs are bred to work with humans, and to not work with them is to neglect them. I know from experience they get very sad when they're not involved. Weimaraners in particular like games a lot, and they see it as an interactive game. The more serious the endeavor the more they thrive on it-and despite my silly photographs, it's serious work and the dogs take it seriously. A dog trainer told me that I made Man Ray very smart by asking him a lot of questions and by working with him.
 
 
 
 
Man Ray
(1970-1982)
The first photographs and videotapes which I made of Man Ray show him doing his normal everyday dog things: eating and drinking, sleeping, wanting to go out, wanting to come in, chewing stuff, retrieving pocketbooks, a microphone, plastic bowling pins and other normal everyday studio art supplies. I began to invent games for him, holding him back and then letting him go into the picture/camera frame. On his own he began to sit still and watch me watching him through the camera, his gaze zooming into the lens. We worked every day. I kept thinking up new things for him to do. I didn't think much about him after awhile. He was just there, ready for anything. By the time he was six months, I could easily put him into any pose I could think of (basically: sit, stand, lie down). He had an uncanny sense of where the video camera and microphone where. Posing became second nature to him, patiently watching as I constructed the set, set up lights, tinkered with the equipment...mused.
 
When Man Ray was two we moved to New York dividing out time between a lower manhatten loft on Crosby St and East Hampton Long Island factory buiding which a friend had loaned me. I had a hard time asjusting to the city although Man Ray did just fine. He loved garbage. Crosby St. was well supplied in l972. In East Hampton we did some of our best work together. Videos like spelling lesson and photos like Before/On/After: Permutations where Man Ray appears to know more than he should. This is the begining of my teasing anthropormorphisms which stand out from this period.

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