People I Meet When I Walk My Dog 2005

Locating a common thread between Meredith Allen’s prior photo series’ and the one she presents here initially seems tenuous. A series Allen worked on from 1999-2004 captured drippy popsicles falling prey to the hot summer sun. For her recent exhibition at Sarah Bowen Gallery in Brooklyn, Allen presented a roomful of shots of her mother’s Beanie Babies collection. Each lonely plaything was shown as Allen’s mother keeps them: enclosed in a plastic bag, petrified as a collectible. For this specially commissioned series of work for NYFA Current, Allen presents several photos of New Yorkers posing with her six month-old Shitzu/Jack Russell Terrier, Iggy. The puppy was given to Allen and her partner by an organic farmer on Long Island, and they have come to think of Iggy as a son. “Most people just smile as I walk by,” Allen says of traversing New York with Iggy in tow. These photos document the instances where Allen put passersby on the spot by asking them to pose with her puppy. Although the precocious Iggy hams it up in almost all of Allen’s shots, the reaction of the people posing with Iggy is the most striking aspect of these photos. Posed portraits typically invite false smiles, but the smiles that Iggy inspires are absolutely genuine. Perhaps the connection between this series and Allen’s previous work is clear, after all. The popsicle and Beanie Babies photos seem to investigate a first-world conundrum: the more we buy, the less fun it is. Possessions become relics or simply melt away. Here Allen shifts gears, documenting spiritual fulfillment as it manifests through interactions. Allen takes the most conventional of photo genres—the posed group photo—and breaks down the awkward barrier between photographer and subject. Iggy, her middleman, makes the faces of those who pose with him light up with a joy that exceeds what any prepackaged toy or piece of candy could ever provide.
-Nick Stillman