I see various degrees of severity of the crime:

For example, I would consider this page to be First Degree Webslaughter.

Cramming everything into a tiny frame in the middle of the page: 5 years.
Stuffing several pages of text into a little scroll area: 5 years
Not having the links follow normal link color rules: 3 years.

For many other photography websites, however, the punishments will be much more draconian.

Having all images at full size next to each other horizontally, so you have to keep scrolling left: Second degree Webmurder. Minimum 25 years to life, depending on how many images there are.

Putting up those images at some crazy resolution and then scaling them down in the HTML will get that bumped up to First Degree Webmurder. Add hard labor to that 25 to life.

Entire site packed into a flash animation with randomly scattered and non-intuitive navigation buttons? Put into an oubliette which is then welded shut and forgotten about.

Put a human in a cage, they’re not happy. They see it as a restriction of movement.

Put a well-adjusted dog in a cage, it feels safe. It knows all those strange people can’t get in. It knows it can protect its territory effectively.

So, leaving a dog in a car it’s familiar with can be better than leaving it outside where it feels vulnerable. Just not in the heat, and make sure the air can get in.

See a dog barking in a car? 9/10 it doesn’t want to get out. It wants you to keep away from its den.

This might be one of the saddest photo series ever. Poor dogs. I just want to hug all of them.

I can has happy-dog chaser?

Actually, you know what, here is a happy-dog chaser. I know that dog personally and can guarantee that he is, indeed, that happy all the time.

“Lookit that! That’s wee doag’s loacked in that car!”
“Thatsa f**kin’ sin, that, that wee doag could die! Doags die in hot cars you know!”
“That’s terrible, ah’m callin’ the polis, that shouldnae be allowed”

Meanwhile the wee dog sat there glaring at them and you could tell he was thinking “Right, you lot – one, get the hell away from my van, and two, ‘dogs die in hot cars’, is it? Dogs die in hot bloody cars? It’s -4 out there, I’ll take that chance! Hot car indeed…”

Maybe I’m weird, but I never had a problem being alone. I don’t ever remember thinking if anyone was going to come back for me. I was usually busy having conversations with my imaginary friends or myself…..

And no, the comma isn’t extraneous, as it connects the two clauses of Xeni’s title: without it it would be a run-on: “a photo project . . .” modifies the main clause, which is the (incorrectly given, but still) title of the project.

I’ll leave the “dick” untouched, thanks.

And I as well have always enjoyed my alone time and my own devices, even as a small child.

That’s totally the same dog. I don’t doubt it’s staged, but that’s the same dog.

Hey, at least the guy didn’t smear them in chocolate sauce and stand them up pouting on the shores of Lake Michigan or some shit, amirite?

Collective guilt has been a very lucrative marketing pitch for quite some time now. It’s especially common here on the boing. I’m surprised you’re just now noticing it.

They’re incredibly lovely photos, however staged or not, unlike the chocolate-poo-syrup photos you’re referring to, which were exploitative and quite unlovely.

Before getting out I fumbled around a bit, picking up garbage and sticking it in a sack for disposal in the shopping center’s trash cans. I noticed that the wolf-dog was staring at me. He had a great big friendly “HI THERE!” expression. I figured he was lonely just sitting there while his boss was shopping. I waved back. He bobbed his head and looked like he was trying to get my attention, so I waved again.

I got out. He kept staring in the car. “Huh!” I thought, “either he sees the snack cakes I left on my seat, or he’s waiting for me to get back the car.”

I did my shopping and returned to my Civic. The wolfy dog was still staring into my car. Another shopper and I stopped to admire the big galoot. Eventually the truck’s owner showed up. “He sure seems interested in something in my car.”

The guy rolled his eye. “Pffft! He’s looking at his reflection in your window. He thinks it’s another dog.”

Bonus points for being a really old truck where the volume knob would actually affect the radio even if you turned the knob while the radio was off. As soon as they started it… WHAMMO

Since we can’t/aren’t able/don’t want to bring them everywhere being left in the car (assuming its in a safe, comfortable place) may be better than being left at home.

Dogs ≠ people.

Click the Martin Usborne link and you’ll see that the title of the exhibit is “MUTE: the silence of dogs in cars”.

Let me explain a few things..

All the photos are staged. Not trying to hide that at all. Sorry if it looks like I am. And yes, the title is not ‘left’ in cars. The dogs were put in cars – briefly.

I am not trying to make a comment about how we mustn’t leave dogs in cars. I am not even trying to make a comment about dogs. Nor am I trying to create a ‘real’ scene. I am trying to communicate a feeling, the feeling I had when i was a kid when I was left in a car and i was terrified, that feeling of dreamlike, depressing, beautiful alone-ness. When I was young and in that car it was sunny and bright outside – yet it felt like night time, hence the darkness of the shots.

The shots are meant to look otherworldly, they are meant to look film-like.

The reason I use animals – and not kids or adults – is that they bring an immediacy but also a poetry to the images. If I put a kid in a car crying it would be too obvious, too straight-on. There is a part of me, as I suspect there is in many people, that feels hard to voice. A part of me that is scared, that sometimes feels locked away, just like that young kid. That part of me feels like an animal, raw and instinctive.

That’s why I photographed dogs in cars.

And Bucket, you are right, I am not a web designer, but at least I don’t name myself after something to vomit into. If you are that angry about web design perhaps play with some html on your own.

thanks all.