Table of Contents
Guide
THERON HUMPHREY
A Complex Experiment Involving Canine Sleep Patterns
ABRAMS IMAGE, NEW YORK
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Home grown
/ Atlanta, GA
This is one of those serendipitous moments you couldnt recreate if you tried for a year. Everything just
fell right into place. Ive eaten at this diner more than a few times and the owners are as kind as they
come. I asked if I could shoot Maddie being poured a cup of coffee for a photo idea I had. As my buddy
was pouring the coffee, Maddie just started to yawn on her own. I remember thinking, Oh my gosh,
this is amazing, this is amazing when I was shooting. For sure one of the most magical images Ive
taken. Other interesting little details: Even though I shot this on an iPhone 4, this image was published
in
National Geographic
, and it has circled the Internet more than once.
I first met Maddie back in 2010. I remember walking down a long hall of
adoptable dogs at an animal shelter outside Atlanta, Georgia, looking for
her kennel number, which they give ya at the front desk. I put her on a
borrowed leash and took her toward the playroom so I could get a better
sense of how our personalities would fit. I let her off the leash and she
trotted around the entire perimeter of the room a few times. She sniffed
all the corners, jumped up and looked out the windows, and filled her
lungs with the air coming in from the crack under the door. I must have
sat on the floor for ten minutes hoping this dog I just met would come
say hi, maybe even sit on my lap. But she never did. If Im being real
honest, I was a bit bummed about it. She was a beautiful dog with neat
spots and I wanted her to like me. After realizing she wasnt going to pay
me any mind, I put her back on the leash to take her back to her kennel.
On that walk back something really simple but profound happened. She
pressed the weight of her body against my legs. It was like the feeling you
Introduction
get when you hold the hand of someone you love a whole bunch. Maddie
won my heart on that walk. There was no way I could put her back in that
kennel, so I turned around and took her to the front desk. They asked for
forty dollars and for me to treat her right, and then said I could take her
with me. Looking back now, its fun to see how tiny subtle details in life
change everything.
Maddie and I spent the better part of four years on the road
wandering around, shooting photo projects. By now we must have traveled
the lower forty-eight states at least three times, weaving in and out of
small towns and long stretches of interstate miles. At the time I didnt
even realize I was hunting anything, I thought I was just out there to see
all those sunsets and nooks I never knew existed. But after finally hanging
my hat and being embraced by such a wonderful community of vulnerable
folks in Nashville, Tennessee, it became so clear I was using travel to
numb feelings.
Good things often get used in unhealthy ways. Travel is a gift, but
for way too long I was using it to cope. I was running from the childhood
trauma of physical abuse. Thats a pretty human response to things in
our past that we havent unpacked and healed from. We try to distract
ourselves with things in the world instead of discovering tools to get
better. For me, those tools were diving head first into therapy and doing
some hard work. It was also having a dog by my side for years. A dog that
was constant in her love. She was steady and its just what I needed. This
book is a weaving story of how Maddie taught me to live wholeheartedly.
At first, lounging might seem like a funny approach, but Im not talking
about being lazy or simply lying around. Maddie is the sort of dog who
wants to run five miles every day, to sniff every smell, to fully engage with
the world. And then after living fully, she can take pause and be present;
take it slow and be content exactly where she is.
When I look through the photos in this book I see love songs to
a wonderful dog who has been so devoted to me. Maddie is always up for
an adventure, but she also reminds me to take it slow, to find comfort in
strange places, to not be in such a hurry to see the next place. Just to
lounge on something with good people. She doesnt care where we go, she
just wants to go with me. She doesnt care what I drive. Shes not worried
about who I know or how well I did last year. The only thing Maddie wants
is for me to lay with her in the grass and have no better place to be. To
be right there, fully with her. Thats why dogs are so special. What they
demand from us is so simple: just our presence.
Theron Humphrey
Brooklyn, NY
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Self-portrait
/ Nashville, TN
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d
Dripping Springs, TX
Billings, MT
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