Picture pawfect

They say that a dog is man’s best friend, but they will shamelessly steal the show when a camera is pointed at them. As photographer Lucy Sewill discovered. By Lucy Dunn

Celebrities allow their canine sidekicks to steal the show in Lucy Sewill’s photographs

DEMANDING SITTERS ARE part of the job when you’re a celebrity photographer, but what Lucy Sewill didn’t foresee when she embarked on her new book, Dogs and Humans, a photographic collection of famous people with their dogs, was that the dogs would be the more awkward subjects. ‘Shoots were often delayed, not because the person couldn’t make it, but because the dog couldn’t get a grooming appointment,’ she says.

Dogs, it turns out, are hard to photograph, too. Even when a four-legged sitter emerges shimmering from a dog spa and pawdicure, patience is required. ‘They’re totally in love with their owner, and only look at them – so all I get is a dog’s bottom.’

Sewill’s idea for her book came about after years of shooting famous people in their homes – ‘You get a real sense of who people are when you meet them in their own space’ – and seeing how they react to their canine companions.

She says photographing someone with their dog brings out a tenderness which she finds fascinating. And the fact that the focus is shifted. ‘When you photograph a celebrity, it’s all about them. When you photograph a celebrity with a dog, it’s all about the dog. The person is completely ignored.’

She dismisses the idea that people grow to look like their pets; rather, she maintains, people gravitate to dogs that are similar to them. ‘Hermione Norris has a beautiful black Great Dane and, when I photographed them, they entwined their limbs around each other. They both share such an elegance. And, when you look at The Telegraph’s cartoonist Matt with his dog Reg, they’re such a match... Reg is this little, slightly unusual Jack Russell cross, quirky but funny. Just like his owner.’ Dogs and Humans, by Lucy Sewill (John Catt Educational Ltd, £24). To order a copy for £19 plus p&p, call 0844-871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk