Dotan Saguy

Dotan was born in a small kibbutz near Israel’s Lebanese border as the son and grandson of holocaust survivors. He grew-up in a diverse working class Parisian suburb, lived in Lower Manhattan during 9/11 and moved to Los Angeles in 2003. In 2015 Dotan decided to focus on his lifelong passion for photography after a successful career as a high-tech entrepreneur. Since then Dotan attended the prestigious Eddie Adams Workshop, Missouri Photo Workshop and studied photojournalism at Santa Monica College. 

Dotan's award winning photographs have been published by National Geographic, The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times and many others. 

Dotan teaches street photography and documentary workshops for the Leica Akademie and Momenta Workshops. 

Interview by Dana Stirling

First, tell us a little about your first experience with photography? What made you want to be a photographer?

Photography goes way back for me. It was my dad’s passion when I was growing up. He had a lab at home. I can’t really recall a “first experience” since I was a baby when I was first exposed to the photography bug (no pun intended!). But it wasn’t until I was a teenager that I became curious about experimenting with cameras myself. I remember finding a great deal on a medium format Pentax 6x7 in the newspaper classifieds and asking my dad to drive me a hundred miles away to buy it because I didn’t have a driver’s license yet. I had no intention to become a professional photographer back then though. I was studying computer science and photography was just a hobby I was having a lot of fun exploring.

Can you share the inspiration behind creating a photobook specifically focused on dogs, and how this project evolved from your previous work in "Venice Beach"?

Back when I was shooting my “Venice Beach” book, which was published in 2018, many of my favorite moments involved dogs. I can think of photographs from the book titled “Hippie Van” , “Fake News” or “Venice Kiss” as prime examples. After I completed the work for the book I was so in love with the Venice boardwalk that I could not see myself turning the page on it entirely. I felt like I had barely scratched the surface and there were a lot of fascinating sub cultures to explore in more depth.

Being a huge dog person myself and an Elliott Ewritt fan, the dog culture of Venice Beach felt like the natural next project for me to explore. I’m a sucker for good puns and history too so it wasn’t lost on me that this iconic stretch of beach used to be known as “Dogtown” back in the 1970’s. I knew pretty much from the start of this project that I was going to eventually make a book titled DOGTOWN. The other reason behind this choice of topic is that I needed a “happy” project to work on: At the time I had been shooting a couple of projects about the homeless that weighed on my emotional state and COVID had turned life upside down so photographing quirky situations involving dogs by the beach was incredibly therapeutic to me.

You mention that dogs contribute greatly to the unique character of Venice Beach. Can you elaborate on how you believe dogs shape the community and add to its distinctive atmosphere?

Dogs tend to be care free, silly, free of inhibitions, transparent with their emotions. They don’t take themselves seriously. You can make friends with them in an instant. I am describing dogs here but I could as well be describing people in Venice. That’s why the dogs fit right in… or is the the people who fit in with how dogs naturally behave? Regardless, Venice is one of the rare places I’ve witnessed where dogs seem in complete symbiosis with their environment and the consequence is that there are lots of interesting scenes to photograph involving dogs: dogs using the public showers, dogs on skateboards, dogs wearing silly outfits, dogs dancing with their humans. They just seem to enjoy taking part in every aspect of this chaotically festive yet inclusive, loving community.

How did your approach to photographing dogs differ from the more traditional portrait/street photography you’ve done in the past , especially in terms of allowing them to express their own personality without posing? 

My approach with dogs is actually not that different from what I do with humans. I have developed a few different methods for street photography that I teach students in my workshops. I refer to one of these methods as a “follow”: you find a “character” and you follow them until an interesting moment unfolds. It’s all about spotting the right characters and anticipating moments.

The key is good observation skills, empathy for your subject, connecting well with them, and being quick enough to catch peak moments with a good composition. I would say it might even be easier with dogs because almost any dog owner is happy to let you follow their pup around and take photos, especially if you offer to share them later. People are flattered that you take interest in their dog. There’s none of those potentially confrontational moments you experience when trying to photograph humans.

The book features high-contrast, layered style photographs with hectic juxtaposed moments. How did you develop and refine this style, and what do you believe it adds to the storytelling of this project?

I really appreciate you noticing and pointing that out because that is exactly the style I strive for! I love it when I manage to capture a seemingly chaotic scene involving multiple juxtaposed moments in one frame that somehow manages to organize all the elements in a readable manner for the viewer. I’ve been asked before why and how I do this and the best analogy I’ve found to describe it is that it’s like a video game challenge for me: I try to position myself with a viewpoint that emphasizes the main character and is most likely to create enough separation between the subjects.

My biggest enemy is overlaps between subjects because they make the scene harder to read for the viewer of the photograph. That’s why I try to organize all the moving elements in my viewfinder as best I can. Sometimes it’s a matter of waiting until everything falls cleanly into place for that fraction of a second. Other times it’s about moving the camera a bit to create that separation. And of course the moment of separation has to coincide with a peak moment in the scene. To be honest it’s very difficult to execute. It definitely requires experience but also a lot of luck, and I fail most of the time. It is so rewarding when it works out though! So I look for scenes with that kind of potential and I try my luck every chance I get!

Were there any particular challenges or unexpected situations you encountered while photographing the dogs, and how did you navigate them?

The main challenge was similar to the one you encounter when photographing humans: Not every dog is interesting just like not every human is interesting. As a human I’m obviously better wired to read human behavior than dog behavior. This body of work forced me to tune into dog personalities a whole lot more so I could figure out which dogs were the right “characters” to focus on and how to interact with them to draw out their personality. I was already a dog person when I started the project but it brought me much closer to dogs and it’s been quite a rewarding journey! As humans there’s so much we can learn from dogs like living in the moment, loving unconditionally, enjoying life to the fullest, being more playful, grateful, etc.

As a photographer, how do you see the relationship between dogs and their human counterparts reflected in the candid scenes presented in "DOGTOWN"?

I tried to shoot this book from a dog’s point of view. I am interested in the human-dog relationship but I wanted the viewer to see it through a dog’s eyes. Some of the images show the unconditional love that comes so naturally to dogs and humans struggle so much with in their relationships. Other images suggest a sense of confusion and disbelief in the eyes of the dogs: they must think humans are nuts! In general though I think the images give you the feeling that dogs just love hanging out with their humans no matter what crazy activity the person is up to. There’s clearly tens of thousands of years of coevolution at play.

The decision to work with Kehrer Verlag, a renowned publisher of photo books, is noteworthy. Can you share your experience collaborating with them and how it contributed to the overall presentation of your work?

The people at Kehrer are incredibly passionate about their craft. Projects that I bring to them always end-up becoming more than the sum of their parts. I think it’s important to work with a publisher you admire but also one you enjoy working with. I’m a design oriented person so I go into a book project with a strong vision for what I want the book to feel like. Kehrer is a publisher I can collaborate with to achieve and often improve on my original vision. It’s reassuring as an author when you feel listened to, understood but also supported by people with such deep experience in designing and manufacturing beautiful art books.

What has been some of the best advice / feedback / critique you've received that you feel really pushed you forward and that stuck with you and your work?

One of the guiding principles I’ve adopted for my projects and that I try to teach my students is to work on projects you love. Not just topics you are passionate about but also ones you actually take immense pleasure and/or satisfaction photographing. You have to listen to your emotions when shooting a new project: does it drain you or does it energize you? If I can’t wait to go back and shoot more of a project I know I’m working on the right thing. 

A body of work typically takes a lot of time and effort to develop. You must enjoy the process in order to go the distance and explore the subject with enough depth to make it interesting to others, to add something unique to the visual conversation. Even if you document difficult topics involving human suffering they must bring you a sense of passion and satisfaction that keeps you going. To me that’s the most important ingredient to a successful body of work.