Something had to be done. Each time Roma showed up, Violet charged at him, barking and occasionally nipping at his legs.
One day, Roma knelt down next to her and started to howl “like a wolf,” he said. She stopped “dead in her tracks” and joined him, starting a ritual that persists today.
“She matched me howl for howl, and immediately after that she just loved me,” Roma said.
Violet was one of many canine friends Roma made at Dyker Beach Park, where he spent three years shooting what he calls the most unexpected work of his career.
–
He stopped photographing there last year when the city renovated the park, tearing up the ground and putting down a new surface.
It’s actually better for the dogs and their owners. It’s less dusty, and Tino still gets to hang out with Violet and the rest of their friends. But it effectively ended Roma’s project.
“It’s a beautiful pebbled surface,” he said. “I could see taking a few pictures but I think I would get bored pretty quickly.”
Thomas Roma is an American photographer and professor at Columbia University. You can follow him on Twitter.
