'An important part of my personal work is finding the right models. Sometimes I have had someone in mind for years, but the setting only presents itself later. In this case, it involved a dog.
For my Human Angels series, I wanted to photograph a boy with an imposing dog. Years earlier, I had seen the dog lying in a corner of a somewhat obscure car-rental business near my home. He would look at me out of the corner of one eye. He was an enormous animal with a fierce-looking face, and so old that he could barely walk. 'He wouldn't hurt a fly,' the owner assured me. 'Don't wait too long,' she added.
Once I had also found the ideal boy, he and his mother went to meet the dog. That was the end of the plan, because the boy was terrified of him. Understandably so: the four-year-old looked tiny beside the almost mythical dog. A year later, his mother told me he was ready. Relieved, I returned to see the dog, but his place in the corner was empty. Months later, I found a dog just like him, and that is how the photograph came about.'
Name: Marie Cécile Thijs (1964)
Based in: Rotterdam
Information: www.mariececilethijs.com
