Retrieved

Immediately following the attacks of 9/11, nearly 100 trained search dogs and their handlers were deployed by FEMA to assist in the rescue efforts at the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Enlisted from a network of 26 task forces in 18 states around the U.S., the dogs worked around the clock to locate survivors in the rubble, alongside firemen and other teams sorting through the debris. One decade later, Dutch photographer Charlotte Dumas succeeded in tracking down 15 of the surviving dogs that took part in these rescue operations, visiting and photographing the dogs at their homes throughout the U.S., where they all still lived with their handlers. Composed at close range in natural light, Dumas’ powerful portraits—reproduced here in a thoughtfully designed paperback volume with Japanese binding—offer an intimate view into the everyday lives of these highly specialized working animals, now sharing the vulnerability of old age as they once pursued a common heroic goal. Since 2002, Charlotte Dumas has worked exclusively on photographic projects exploring the ways in which we use, define and relate to animals. Her work has been published in several previous volumes, including Al Lavoro! (2011), Repose (2010), Paradis (2009), Heart Shaped Hole (2008), Reverie (2006), and Day is Done (2005). She lives and works in Amsterdam and New York.