AKC Gazette Gallery: Best of the West - Joan Ludwig's Dog Show Portraits

Best of the West: Joan Ludwig’s Show Dog Portraits
From Bo Bengtson’s 1994 AKC Gazette profile of Joan Ludwig, who at the time copped to being born “about 3,462 years ago”:
If it’s true that a picture is worth more than a thousand words, then Joan Ludwig has spoken more to the dog fancy than almost anyone else. For decades her portraits have adorned dog magazines in every corner of the world, and for thousands of aspiring exhibitors a photograph of their dog bearing her characteristic handwritten signature remains the ultimate seal of approval; proof that you have really arrived. […]
The prolific output and sustained length of Ludwig’s career is an achievement in itself, but it is the quality of her work and the effect her photographs have had on budding exhibitors, breeders, and judges over the years that most clearly demonstrate her unique place in the sport of dogs. […]
The trim figure, the mop of gray hair, the dangling brown cigarette, the Hasselblad camera in one hand and the well-worn catalog in the other (used for a hundred tosses to attract the dogs’ attention), her crooked smile and salty good humor, her total lack of ego and pretense-everything conspires to help her stand out even in the turbulent hothouse atmosphere of California dog shows.
Photos-
COVER: Beagle Am./Mex./Can. Ch. Pacific Casper of Starcrest (c.1980)
1. Borzoi Am./Mex. Ch. Yermak’s Rurick (b. 1954)
2. Brussels Griffon pups, Barmere Kennels (1960s)
3. Skye Terrier Ch. Evening Star de Luchar (1960)
4. Lhasa Apso Ch. Hamilton Torma (1957)
5. Whippet Ch. Canyon’s Crest Mamie (1955)
6. Irish Wolfhound Ch. Gartha of Ambleside (1943)
7. English Cocker Spaniel Ch. Kay Emm’s Rob Roy Anbet of Pan and daughter (c. late 1950s)
8. Samoyed litter brothers Blazer, Rouge, and Blitz, from the kennel of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Burr (c. late 1950s)
9. Smooth fox Terrier Ch. Ttarb the Brat (c. early 1980s)
10. Afghan Hound Ch. Stormhill Domino Masquerade and pup Stormhill’s Freeze Frame (c. mid-1980s)
11. Pharaoh Hounds Mex./Int./PHCA Ch. Shema’s Jewel Thief and Mex./PHCA Ch. Shema’s Khan Khara, from the kennel of Joyce Martin (1982)
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