The Tale of the South Philly Dog Poop Photographer

Dog poop.

Nothing glamorous or beautiful about it, I’m sure you would agree. To a South Philly artist who photographed a whole series of dogs popping a squat, however, poop equals art.

Thirty-eight year old Beth Ann Dombkowski has spent the last year following dogs and their owners around Center City and elsewhere, just waiting for them to defecate. And then she takes photos of the dogs while they are in the midst of doing their business. Now she’s arranged an exhibit of the photograph at her gallery, Wanderlife, located atc13th and Daly streets, between Wolf Street and Snyder Avenue. The exhibit is called “Poopface: Dogs of Philadelphia.” Its original title is not fit to type here, although it is hilarious.

“I just announced it last night and all of these people are already responding to it,” Dombkowski told a writer for Philadelphia Magazine. “It’s one of these things that people all know but don’t really talk about: Dogs make funny faces when they poop. It’s this strange, intimate vulnerability that they have. We don’t watch each other poop, but dogs we watch. It almost like we’re infringing on their privacy.”

For those wondering if this is just someone trolling Philadelphia, know that Dombkowski is the real deal. She graduated Moore College of Art and Design with a photography degree and developed all the gelatin silver prints herself, in her own darkroom.

Dombkowski says that all her photographs were obtained with the express permission of the dogs’ owners, who scheduled sessions with her around their pups’ pooping schedule. While some people thought she was nuts, most people laughed along and went for it, she states.

Should you want to own your very own piece of scatological art, prints from the series will be on sale at Wanderlife with prices ranging from $300 to $600. Check out the opening’s Facebook event page here.