Lucky

Lucky investigates the intertwined histories of humans and dogs in contemporary South Africa, treating each canine companion as a living archive of social stratification, migration, and power. Drawing on Sandra Swart’s ethnographic reading of dogs as cultural signifiers (2003) and building upon the visual anthropology of Graham Hughes and the animal‑gaze discourse of Laura Mulvey, the series positions the dog‑owner dyad as a micro‑political site where authority, belonging, and resistance surface in everyday gestures.

Shot on medium‑format film, the work demands a slower, more contemplative presence, allowing the photographer to inhabit the same temporal rhythm as the subjects. This deliberate pacing uncovers subtle details: hand placement, leash tension, the texture of a worn collar, that betray socioeconomic status, gendered expectations, and regional identities.

An initially pragmatic decision to omit owners’ faces, prompted by concerns over illegal dog‑fighting associations, has become a formal device of “strategic anonymity.” By erasing the conventional focal point of the human gaze, the images compel viewers to read relational cues, thereby exposing the invisible hierarchies that govern care, control, and co‑existence.

Lucky thus operates as both a social portrait and a meditation on the materiality of connection, asking: how much of who we are can be read in the way we hold, protect, or restrain the animals that walk beside us?