FINE
portraits

Name: Dog Day by Matt Mendelsohn
Address: 600 Madison Street, Alexandria, VA, 22314-1712, US
Telephone: (703)795-8659

Matt's work has appeared in:
The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, CBS News,
The Today Show, Washingtonian Magazine, Arlington Magazine

My work is about the relationship between you and your dog. It’s a photograph of love.

We offer two types of Dog/Day Portraits

01.

Dog/Day Photomarathons

These are all-day events on location with multiple shooting sessions throughout the day.

Learn More

02.

Private Portraits

Book a custom photoshoot with Matt in the studio. These shoots are more intensive and detailed.

Book Now

Upcoming Events

Carolyn N. Nashville, TN

“I first learned about Matt from seeing his photos of people and their dogs at McLean Animal Hospital. They were just gorgeous black and white portraits. He took some of the most wonderful pictures of Tally, my chow-chow/retriever mix. Besides having a killer eye and being able to capture special moments, he's just a good person. That's a potent combination.”

About Matt

I've been a photographer for 40 years now, though my passion for photography started long before even then. Back in Mattlin Junior High School, in Plainview, New York, I vividly remember seeing an image come up on a piece of paper floating in a tray of liquid. The rest, as they say, is history.

Taking far too many pictures and accumulating far too few academic credits, I shot my way through my college years at the State University of New York in Binghamton, in the early '80s. Though I received a B.A. in English Literature, I was known around school as the guy with the camera (and also known for setting a SUNY-B record for failing Chaucer four consecutive times.)

While still in school, I began my career at the Binghamton Press and Sun Bulletin in 1984 and quickly moved on to USA Today, the nation's newspaper, for what was supposed to be a five-month stint. But I stuck around Washington, D.C., becoming a photo editor and photographer at United Press International.

During my time at UPI, I covered the White House, the Gulf War, the invasion of Panama, and countless professional sporting events. In 1990 I moved to California to take over the Los Angeles bureau. While in Los Angeles, I covered the Rodney King beating trial, the Academy Awards and far too many USC football games. In fact, I sometimes hear the school's march in my nightmares.

After moving back to the East Coast, I became the photo editor of the news section of USA Today and eventually the director of photography at USA Weekend, a Sunday magazine with a circulation of 27 million weekly.

Ah, but those days are long gone, as is most of the news business. For the last twenty years I've been shooting family portraits, corporate re-branding, and high school seniors. In fact, during the height of COVID, in April of 2020, I decided on a whim to photograph all 500 seniors at Yorktown High School in Arlington. That project ended up being featured on both the Today Show and Good Morning America.

It's been a wild ride for four decades. I've photographed newly discovered Egyptian tombs and been in hotel rooms with Stephen Hawking and Nicole Kidman. But the most fun I've had with a camera has been photographing people and their dogs. Why? Because it's pure love—you're never sure who rescued whom. Sometimes people ask me to photograph only their dogs. It's not my thing. I always feel like half the picture is missing.