ALUMNI/AE NEWS
as an attorney through a two-year fellowship from the Skadden Foundation.” According to www.law.nyu.edu, “Established in 1988 by the firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, the prestigious two-year fellowships support graduating law students who wish to pursue public interest work. The fellowship provides a salary, fringe benefits, and tuition-debt assistance to awardees as they pursue personally conceived projects at their chosen public interest organizations.”
2006 Ryan Bash works in the Office of Policy at the US Department of Transportation. He lives in Washington, DC with his fiancé and their dog. Their wedding is scheduled for October 2016 and will take place at his family’s house in Avalon.
2008 Alums stick together! Joyfully celebrating at the engagement party of Logan Brenner ’08 are (from left) Alec Unkovic, Amber Williams, Jasmine Martin, Candice Hardie, Alison Turka, Yoni Litwok (Logan’s fiancé), Logan Brenner, Hannah Minkoff, Meg Lundy, Mary Stroman, Taylor Lee, and Jay Gallagher.
ELIAS WEISS FRIEDMAN ’06 - AKA “THE DOGIST” Elias Weiss Friedman, otherwise known as “The Dogist,” is a photographer whose singular portraits of dogs have drawn more than 1.9 million followers on Instagram. Elias explained, “The Dogist is the online photo-documentary series I created to celebrate the beauty and character of dogs. I started the project in October 2013, inspired by what fashion photographer Scott Schuman did for street fashion with his blog, The Sartorialist. With dogs, I saw an amazing story that wasn’t being told, and I knew that my imagery would make people better appreciate their dogs and make people around the world smile.” Throughout Elias’s childhood, his family dogs—Matilda, Snowy, Maggie, Rigby, Biggie, Bialy, T-Paws, Willy, and Ruby, his very own portly black Lab—were an essential part of the household. But when he moved to New York City after college, Elias had to adapt to life without a canine companion, getting his vicarious dog fix from the pups he passed on the street. In 2013, after layoffs at the branding company where he worked, Elias decided to combine his two greatest loves—photography and dogs—to launch The Dogist, a streetstyle photo blog documenting the canines he met each day around town. With his uncanny Elias’s first book, New York Times bestseller The Dogist, published in October 2015 talent for highlighting the unique personality of every dog he photographed, Elias began attracting thousands of new followers every day. He said that he has been “photographing dogs since the day my family got our first dog, Ruby, when I was eight years old.” But it wasn’t until two years ago that Elias saw the potential in it. “I realized how much I enjoyed photographing dogs specifically and that I could make an awesome, focused project out of it.” In his first book, New York Times bestseller The Dogist, published in October 2015, Elias captures the wonder and diversity of the beloved dogs in our lives. “Besides the simple joy I find from being outside with dogs all day, there’s nothing like the candor you find on a dog’s face; they have no pretense or apprehension about being photographed,” said Elias. “In our culture, where vanity and constant social validation are the status quo, that quality makes dogs admirable. All they care about—and really all anyone should care about—is food and love. They’re a good reminder of the essentials in life.”
Elias gets down to his subject’s level to photograph Bane. (Photo by Jeff Hodsdon)
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FRIENDS’ CENTRAL SCHOOL
Elias shared that he was grateful to Friends’ Central for fostering his creativity. “I remember feeling proud about exhibiting some of my darkroom prints in the main hallway of Shallcross. They were just a few portraits of my friends, but seeing people pausing to look sparked something. Getting recognition as an artist can be difficult, but it’s those first few affirmations that can set a precedent for bigger things.”