--- description: A LIFE photographer recalls a photo shoot with a famous pig -- and coming away impressed by the creature's willingness to please. title: The Art of Photographing a Famous Pig image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab840efc8b5823bf/69884c7ea988ca5c336b22d8/140918-arnold-pig-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [animals](/tag/animals/) ## animals Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The Art of Photographing a Famous Pig by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 18, 2014 5:02 PM CUT  Portrait of the pig that played Arnold on the TV show, Green Acres, Los Angeles, 1970. Portrait of the pig that played Arnold on the TV show, Green Acres, Los Angeles, 1970.Vernon Merritt III—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 18, 2014 5:02 PM CUT Most people who spend time studying the relative intelligence of animals will readily admit that pigs are among the smartest of our mammalian cousins. (“Intelligence” itself is a slippery word when applied to different species, of course—but here, for our rigorously unscientific purposes, it will serve.) One photographer in particular, Vernon Merritt III, might attest to the validity of such an assertion about pigs, if only because he once found himself taking pictures of one of the most famous pigs ever to oink its way through a photo shoot—and, if nothing else, came away impressed by the creature’s willingness to please. The story of Merritt’s portrait session with Arnold of _Green Acres_ fame is succinctly told in the book, [_LIFE Photographers: What They Saw_](http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/life-photographers-john-loengard/1114270250 "undefined") (Bulfinch Press, 1998). Returning to the States after he was wounded (“shot through the coccyx,” as he put it) while covering the war in Vietnam as a freelancer, Merritt was hired as a staff photographer at LIFE in 1968\. Asked specifically about his 1970 photo shoot with the pig, Merritt jokingly acknowledges in _What They Saw_ that, as an Alabama native, he might have been tapped for the assignment because of his own “special understanding of the porcine nature.” --- > “” --- “Overwhelmingly cooperative.” How often does one hear that phrase applied to celebrities, human or otherwise, these days? We’re just sayin’. . . .  Portrait of the pig that played Arnold on the TV show, Green Acres, Los Angeles, 1970. Vernon Merritt III—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3880965/the-art-of-photographing-a-famous-pig/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3880965/the-art-of-photographing-a-famous-pig/"},"headline":"The Art of Photographing a Famous Pig","datePublished":"2014-09-18T17:02:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:47:34.157Z","description":"A LIFE photographer recalls a photo shoot with a famous pig -- and coming away impressed by the creature's willingness to please.","url":"https://time.com/3880965/the-art-of-photographing-a-famous-pig/","keywords":["animals","Newsfeed","Television","photography","1970"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab840efc8b5823bf/69884c7ea988ca5c336b22d8/140918-arnold-pig-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Cosgrove","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab840efc8b5823bf/69884c7ea988ca5c336b22d8/140918-arnold-pig-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Arnold the Pig","caption":"A pig that played Arnold on the TV show, \"Green Acres,\" 1970.","creditText":"Vernon Merritt III—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/animals/","name":"animals"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3880965/the-art-of-photographing-a-famous-pig/","name":"The Art of Photographing a Famous Pig"}}]}] ```