Hall of fame for celebrity pooches

A canine hall of fame has opened in Paris, exhibiting giant portraits of dogs in the great French political, business and social life.

"Leur Chien" (Their Dog) takes a light-hearted look at what the pooches of France's social elite might say about their owners.

Valery Giscard d'Estaing, a former president who has two hunting dogs in the show, was among the celebrities who attended the exhibition's official opening last Wednesday along with a dozen live mutts.

"The idea was to do a portrait gallery from the point of view of dogs," said Claude Anthenaise, the curator of the Musee de la Chasse in the historic Le Marais district that is hosting the show.

"It reverses the traditional relationship between master and dog. We feel like prey in the gallery." Wandering around the gallery is a slightly unnerving experience, with the the giant faces of 68 dogs, one domesticated wolf and a lone cat staring out at at the visitor.

Antoine Schneck, who spent three years photographing the dogs, presents only their heads against a black backdrop in a square-metre frame.

"The most difficult dog was Alphonse," belonging to Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand, because he just wouldn't sit still, the photographer said.

Another Mitterrand mutt is on show – a labrador called Theleme – belonging to Mazarine Pingeot, the daughter of the late Socialist president Francois Mitterrand, who was Frederic's uncle.

The current French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, declined to have his labrador Clara photographed.

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