For the week of November 20 - 26, 2002

Working with 
a dog of a model

---

By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

Jim Grossman’s black Lab, Shania, doesn’t mind the camera apparently. If one takes a look at his photographs currently on display at the Anne Reed Gallery in Ketchum, you actually get the impression that she loves the camera.

What more can you ask for from a model, canine or otherwise?

Shania jumping a fence. Photo by Jim Grossman

 

Grossman, 36, who grew up in Sun Valley, went to Ernest Hemingway Elementary and The Community School in its early years. It was while The Community School and the Sun Valley Arts Center shared a campus that Grossman first learned about photography in the center’s studio.

After attending Colorado College and pursuing a career in real estate in Boise, he is trying to spend more time in Sun Valley again. "The lure of home is hard to resist," he said.

He’s also resumed his involvement with photography, and has enlisted his pooch as his model.

"Shania doesn’t seem to mind a lot of glass right in her face. Not all dogs like that," Grossman said. His series at the gallery is called "Canine Insight."

"You can take that two ways, what their insight is and how they see the world. To do that is a little unusual; you can’t frame the picture through the viewfinder, so I was shooting by the hip. I tried to capture motion, with the camera down at my knees or at my ankles or holding it by the grass, and on the run, even running backwards, or hanging out the car window."

He’s been working on the series for the last year. "I've been really trying to capture the view that dogs might have, to see things through their eyes."

A photograph of Shania jumping over a fence inspired this whole process. What followed were, in some cases, shear lunacy and in others, gorgeous portraits of a dog’s life.

"I had an image in my mind of what I wanted to capture," Grossman said. He shoots with a digital Canon D30, camera. "That gave me great flexibility and feedback. At least you can see if you’ve gotten close and gotten the exposure and understand what you’re capturing. I don’t think I could have done this with film."

The show remains up at Anne Reed Gallery until the Ketchum Gallery Walk on Friday, Nov. 29. In the meantime he is working on a new series, "Feline Insights." This time his models are barn cats in the Boise area.

Also, Grossman and his wife Pirie have a son, Buey, 5 months. We can only imagine "Baby Insights" as the third installment in this insight series.

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.