Mainstream media coverage of Pit Bull dogs and the people involved with them is commonly negative and oversimplified so as to focus on dog related violence on humans (including many breeds), and other criminal activity, sometimes drug and gang related.
Public opinion in the United States and Europe has been uniformly shaped by this portrayal.
American Pitbull is a photographic exploration into the culture of American Pit Bull dogs and their people, presenting an alternative view of the controversial world revolving around a uniquely American breed of dog and the human beings that live for them.
Over a three-year period photographer Marc Joseph traveled the United States photographing Pit Bull dogs, their owners, breeders and "old time dog men," at their homes and yards, and during various events related to the breed. The relationships formed with his subjects have helped Joseph to gain full access to a culture known by few outside of their specific community.
The fanatical, almost religious devotion that Pit Bull people attribute to their breed is clearly portrayed in Joseph's pictures. Issues of identity are addressed through elements of image, race, pride and background, while the photographs simultaneously serve to further an understanding of our perceptions of unconditional love, beauty, danger and strength. Themes of family and shelter are prominent; throughout the series a cast of characters emerges, themselves defining the context of the book.
From the elder-statesmen of the Pit Bull world in New England and the Southern United States such as Louis B. Colby and Floyd Boudreaux, to new-school giants the Hip-Hop music scene on the East and West coasts, such as Big Boi from Outkast, and DJ Muggs of Cypress Hill, American Pitbull clearly goes to the heart of what and why people feel so strongly for these dogs.
Writer James Frey A Million Little Pieces( Nan A. Talese / Doubleday) contributes an historically informative and personally sensitive essay, that, along with Marc Joseph's photographs, may well change a few minds on this, most misunderstood of all of man's best friends.
