Every year in a post-Valentine's Day haze, the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show rolls around. The canine competition is fierce, and as you tour the booths, you begin to realize that although Best in Show is technically a mockumentary, those characters, or caricatures, definitely seem to exist in real life, with cutthroat dog owners primping and fussing over their four-legged charges.When not being coiffed, the exquisite pups are available for ogling at the annual "Meet the Breeds" event. This is a chance for owners to show off not only their dogs, but also their majestic, themed to breed booths. We love arts & crafts that involve Chow Chows in traditional Chinese garb, so VICE decided to send photographer Caroline Tompkins to cover the event. Caroline's photographs often deal with the beautiful ironies of daily life, and her knack for framing the eccentric really shows through in these epic pooch snapshots. - Elizabeth Renstrom, VICE Photo Editor
Advertisement
All photographs by Caroline Tompkins. You can follow her work here.
