Best in Show explores the connection between pets and people
Paws and Reflect
BY Jezy J. Gray
WHAT CAN WE learn about “status, power, loyalty, compassion, and companionship” from how we relate to our animal friends? This is the question behind Best in Show: Pets in Contemporary Photography, a traveling exhibition of more than one hundred works by twenty-five global artists currently on view at the Momentary, the satellite space of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, in Bentonville, Arkansas, through April 13, 2025.
The group show, organized by Fotografiska Museum New York, explores the often complex relationship between people and their pets and includes the celebrated Weimaraner portraiture of William Wegman, the soapy bathtime pups of Sophie Gamand, the class-conscious pets of Martin Parr, and images by the world’s first professional cat photographer, Walter Chandoha.
Additional artists behind this fur-forward showcase include Akseli Valmunen, Heather Phillipson, Kári Björn, Leila Jeffreys, Visarute Angkatavanich, Winnie Au, and dozens more.
“Photographers have been turning their lenses on animals since the beginnings of the medium,” the executive director of Fotografiska New York, Sophie Wright, told Time Out during the show’s debut in Gramercy Park, Manhattan, in 2023. “Of course, Best in Show is meant to be fun. We want it to delight and entertain and bring smiles to your faces.”