{"id":529620,"date":"2026-03-11T18:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T18:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/529620\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T18:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T18:00:08","slug":"becky-the-dog-steals-the-show-john-deans-best-photograph-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/529620\/","title":{"rendered":"Becky the dog steals the show: John Dean\u2019s best photograph | Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was taken 50 years ago by my 20-year-old self. I was away from Baltimore for the first time, where I had been at art school while still living at home. My tutor at Maryland Institute College of Art, and his friend, a tutor at Nottingham<\/a> Trent University, had decided to set up an exchange programme. So I spent one spring semester in Nottingham with no classes to attend: it was strictly photography and strictly on my own, which was kind of new.<\/p>\n

I stayed with a young family \u2013 I lived on the third floor in their Victorian house. They had a baby boy who turned one when I was there. I have pictures of the birthday. I was really embedded, as they\u2019d say today, with this family. We had dinner together. I remember we made marmalade, using the pips to get the pectin.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d go out every day, either to the Arboretum [Nottingham\u2019s oldest public park] or just to walk around town or look at all the demolition that was happening. It was a time of change and Victorian buildings were being torn down to make way for newer council housing. It wasn\u2019t that different from Baltimore. Both are working-class towns. Baltimore had the steel industry, Nottingham had bicycles and lace and other factories.<\/p>\n

But the industries that had made these cities were waning. It hadn\u2019t really hit us too hard yet in Baltimore \u2013 Bethlehem Steel closed years later \u2013 but there was a downturn. What struck me about Nottingham was all the razing of the buildings. Local kids made these demolition sites their playgrounds. There was no supervision: they were climbing through windows and going into the empty buildings and exploring. They were lucky not to have fallen through a broken window or something.<\/p>\n

I would regularly see Joe, the man in this picture, walking in the Arboretum. That park was a magical spot for me. The day I took this photo may have been the first time I met him. I have other shots of him that are not as captivating, because the dog really makes this picture. The dog\u2019s name was Becky and the little girl was his granddaughter. I never learned her name as she wasn\u2019t with him all the time, but Joe and Becky were regulars. He became a guy to talk to; we liked to talk about music.<\/p>\n

I was lucky to be basically a tourist: you look at everything through eyes that make it seem new and fresh. To me, this picture now seems very English. I really had no idea what England was going to be like before I arrived, when I was basing my knowledge on things like the Roger Miller song England Swings<\/a>: \u201cEngland swings like a pendulum do \/ Bobbies on bicycles, two by two \/ Westminster Abbey, the Tower, and Big Ben \/ The rosy red cheeks of the little children.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fact that in Nottingham I was able to approach people and chat them up, if you will, and have something in common, and then ask them to pose for a picture, that was a skill I developed that stood me well. When you\u2019re alone in a place, you\u2019re a magnet for strangers to come up and talk to you, and vice versa. In Istanbul, I got up in the minaret at the Blue Mosque because I spent a little time with a rug dealer whose cousin was the imam there. \u201cOh, I can get you up, no problem,\u201d he said. Serendipity has played a huge role in my career.<\/p>\n

Photograph: Penny ForesterJohn Dean\u2019s CV<\/p>\n

Born: New York City, 1955
High point: My first assignment for the Walters Art Museum in the 1980s, travelling to Istanbul to photograph the Hagia Sophia.
Top tip: Don\u2019t take your \u201cvision\u201d for granted. There is something unique in your point of view. Work on what satisfies your creativity, and share it.<\/p>\n

John Dean\u2019s exhibition A Semester in Nottingham, 1976, is at Bonington Gallery, Nottingham Trent University<\/a>, from 21 March to 9 May<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This was taken 50 years ago by my 20-year-old self. I was away from Baltimore for the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-529620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}