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Robin Schwartz is a photographer based in NJ and her ongoing portfolio mainly features her ongoing documentation of her daughter Amelia and their shared escapism into invented worlds and friendships with animals. Her photographs are enchanting. For the environments created and with the subject of child play and fantasy I must say Amelia's expressions come across as quite serious.

'My photographs are drawn from real journeys undertaken with my daughter, Amelia. I am driven to depict relationships with animals but the photographs are not documents; they are evidence of the invented worlds that we explore and the fables we enact together. Photography gives us the opportunity to access our dreams, to discover the extraordinary.

Animals and interspecies relationships have always been an important part of my work. Animals in my photographs are not represented as beastly or noble, or as props to illustrate human life but as part of our everyday world.
 

My daughter and I share an affinity with the animal kingdom and we play out our fantasies and explore our eccentricities by creating a cultural space where animals not only co-exist with humans, but also interact as full partners. The animals in the photographs are living creatures, participants in the dramas that the photographs capture. The world that my daughter and I explore is one where the line between human and animal overlaps or is blurred, where animals are part of our world and humans are part of theirs.'

Robin's other series continue with her interest in how animals play a part in the everyday lives of people. From domesticated exotic pets to mountain goats in Mexico and stray Dogs. Robin says she is an obvious photographer and gets to know her subjects by revisiting them to create a genuine rapport. You can sense this from looking at her other galleries, 'Dogs, Arabbers and Mexico' featured on her site. There is a more reportage and spontanious feel to these photographs in comparison to her series of Amelia, where they seem to work in parallel in subject matter but there are two sides to it - exploring the inventive and exploring a reality.

'People’s universal interest in animals has opened many doors for me.'

'Animals are my passion and this obsession fuels my work and has guided my life. The boundary line separating people and animals has always been blurred for me. I found a spiritual connection in photographing pet and stray dogs. I believe that animals such as dogs, kept most often as pets, offer us a unique glimpse into the heart of the human culture that surrounds them.  The relationship of dog and owner cuts across class-structure, and gives us insight into a culture's models of kinship, and of myth. On a less exalted level, I simply love dogs.  I have found great humanity, love, respect, adventure and comfort in their company.'

www.robinschwartz.net

Photography

Posted by — Aurelia Lange

January 2012