A Thank You, In Photographs

I did not start this project to make photographs.

I started it to say thank you.

Every day, in every city in the world, dogs go about their lives without any particular awareness of what they give us. They move through the streets of London — along The Mall, across Trafalgar Square, past the Bank of England and the Churchill War Rooms and the flower-draped doorways of Mayfair — and they do what they have always done. They lift something in us. They make the morning easier. They turn a pavement into a place worth being.

They do all of this without asking for anything in return.

That has always struck me. The quiet generosity of it.

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They secretly own this city.

Every city in the world.

They always have.

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I have photographed dogs for a long time now. From rescue shelters in Cuba to grand London residences, from Fitzrovia townhouses to the steps of Chelsea Town Hall during Chelsea in Bloom. The dogs I have met along the way have been extraordinary — not because of what they represent or who they belong to, but because of who they are.

A dog called Cashew, in Cuba, who chose to sit beside me when she had no reason to. A group of dachshunds who stood at attention on Horse Guards Parade as if they had been doing it their whole lives. Eight sweethearts arranged against the walls of the Bank of England, directly above hundreds of millions of pounds in gold reserves, looking as though they knew exactly what they were worth.

Every one of them an icon.

The Iconic Dogs of London began as a question: what would it look like to place dogs exactly where they belong? Not as visitors to London's most recognisable landmarks, but as the rightful occupants of them. Horse Guards Parade, Whitehall, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, St Paul's Cathedral, the Millennium Bridge, One New Change, Threadneedle Street — locations that have defined this city for centuries, given over, just for a moment, to the souls who quietly define it every day.

The answer, it turns out, looks exactly right. More right than anything else I have placed in those spaces.

Each portrait in this collection is my attempt to give something back. A small act of gratitude, made permanent. A way of saying: we see you. We know what you do for us. And we think you deserve the backdrop.

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Every dog was born an icon.

I am simply giving them

the backdrop to prove it.

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If you have ever been lifted by a dog on a difficult morning — yours, a stranger's, one you passed on the street without knowing its name — then you already understand what this project is about.

It is not really about London, though London is the most beautiful stage I know.

It is a thank you. In photographs. For everything they give us, every single day, without ever being asked.