Elias Friedman, a well-known photographer, and Samantha Cutler met as teens. Both love dogs, but it would be years before they loved each other.
Elias Isadore Weiss Friedman, known as The Dogist, shoots pictures of dogs of all breeds. He is a little more particular about the humans he makes time for. If it wasn’t for Samantha Jane Cutler’s singular ability to make him laugh, he might have lost touch with her years ago.
Mr. Friedman began roaming the streets of New York City with his camera, his cargo pants pockets stuffed with treats and tennis balls, in 2013. When he started gaining traction as The Dogist on Instagram soon after, Ms. Cutler wasn’t often on his mind. This began to change in January 2017, after both got a text from his younger sister, Isabel Friedman, who was arranging a meet-up at the downtown jazz club Terra Blues.
“She said, ‘Sam will be there,’ and I thought, ‘oh, fun,’” Mr. Friedman said.
The tens of thousands of dogs he’d met by then had taught him that canines make people better. Convincing himself that a committed relationship with Ms. Cutler might reap similar rewards took him four more years and a “cowboy.”
Mr. Friedman, 37, and Ms. Cutler, 35, met as teenagers in suburban Pennsylvania; he lived in Wynnewood and she in Bryn Mawr. Both went to Friends’ Central School, a private school in Wynnewood. Ms. Cutler and Ms. Friedman, his sister, were best friends and in the same graduating class.
“I always thought she was adorable and funny,” Mr. Friedman said. “We had this banter. She would come over and we would make something up, like a skit” — both remember playacting through a scenario in which they dislike each other. “I found it charming,” he added.
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