SOPHIE GAMAND

PHOTOGRAPHER, ARTIST, ADVOCATE

French award-winning photographer, artist and animal advocate living and working in Los Angeles, mostly known for her series of dog portraits Wet Dog and Pit Bull Flower Power. Published author, speaker, and animal chaplain in the making.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

Anchored in photography, my multidisciplinary work explores the dog-human bond and what it reveals about our humanity. I am particularly interested in areas of friction in this relationship, which I observe through an ecofeminist lens.

ABOUT SOPHIE’S WORK

Since 2010, Sophie has been traveling around the U.S. and abroad to photograph at-risk dogs: from shelter dogs languishing in cages (United States), to free-ranging dogs in under-served communities (rural Ecuador, Navajo Nation, Moldova, Colombia), or dogs trapped in the dog meat trade (South Korea).

By telling their stories on social media, Sophie helps shed a light on human and animal welfare issues, helps homeless dogs find new families, and brings support to the nonprofits that care for them.

Sophie’s art practice involves a variety of traditional media such as painting, sculpture, hand-stitched embroidery, cyanotype, or video installation; to new technologies such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence, or augmented reality.

WHY DOGS?

I create art about dogs, to better understand humans. Dogs are the first - and most striking - example of artificial selection. Acting like gods, Men created dogs, manipulated their genetics to fulfill their own needs and desires. We subdued an entire specie. I believe this should give us tremendous responsibility towards dogs, and the way we treat them speaks volume about our humanity.

With every project, I hope to raise awareness of the ways in which we may have mistreated the natural world around us. Dogs have co-evolved with humans for at least 33,000 years. They have helped shaped the best parts of humanity, possibly nudging us from the individualistic, violent primates we were born, into societies capable of friendship and collaboration, monogamy and peace. But in return, we have chosen to establish dominion over these magical creatures. We’ve fantasized an alpha male mythology, based on a submission/dominance approach, to justify abusing our dogs’ trust and silencing them.

Colonialism in particular, and specism (the idea that humans are superior to other animals), have led to the extinction of indigenous breeds of dogs, replacing them with ill-fitted man-made breeds. In just a couple hundred years, we have undone what nature so successfully mastered for tens of thousands of years. We hastily manufactured most modern breeds with very little regard to what was in the best interest of the dogs, often focusing on looks rather than health or function. Today most dog breeds suffer from our megalomaniac genetic manipulations.

In the United States alone, pet parents spend $60 billion each year on food, veterinary care, kennels and other pet services. Yet each year, over 3 million dogs end up in animal shelters and private rescues. Puppy mills and breeders keep churning up dogs which people can buy with a click of the mouse online, governments keep granting more breeding licenses each year, while animal shelters are full of unwanted dogs, and we euthanize upward a million of dogs in the U.S. alone, every year, for lack of space. Are dogs the victims of our fast culture? Have they become disposable?

All around the world, dogs suffer the consequences of their unconditional friendship with humans. My work asks: We claim dogs are our best friends, but are we acting like theirs? Suggesting we return to a more collaborative relationship with dogs, my work seeks to help repair the sacred bond between dogs and people, and hold a mirror up to our humanity.

ECOFEMINISM

“Ecofeminism suggests that the patriarchy is the driving source behind the degradation of the planet and exploitation of women — issues that are inextricably linked and cannot be resolved without dismantling oppressive masculine power systems.” (source). When it comes to environmental issues, women are the most impacted by climate change.

“Ecofeminism addresses the extractive male-dominated system in which profits are prioritized over safeguarding the planet,” Dominique Palmer, organizer of UK Student Climate Network said. “It advocates for caring for our natural world, connecting with it, and building a relationship with nature. This is an essential approach to saving our woodlands, and biodiversity across the world.”

The idea behind ecofeminism is that the emancipation of oppressed groups is the only sustainable way forward. Criticizing the patriarchal, capitalistic model, it calls for an egalitarian, collaborative society in which there is no one dominant group.

Philosopher Alicia H. Puelo wrote an essay about ecofeminism, in which she highlights: “The modern capitalist development model, based on technology and economics, insatiably drives us towards competitiveness and the search for unrestrained riches, which stems from the old desire for patriarchal power.” “An easy way to explain ecofeminism is to define it as a meeting between feminism and ecology.” “Ecofeminism: an attempt to outline a new utopian horizon, addressing the environmental issue from the categories of patriarchy, androcentrism, care, sexism and gender.”

PIT BULL FLOWER POWER

For her acclaimed series Pit Bull Flower Power, Sophie photographed over 450 shelter pit bulls wearing handmade flower crowns. The portraits have often lead to adoptions. Some of her models waited up to 8 years, before their portraits connected them with an adopter. Pit Bull Flower Power has become one of the most powerful tools in today’s pit bull advocacy worldwide, changing the public’s perception and renewing the conversation around these misunderstood dogs, while saving countless lives.

Sophie’s images create a ripple effect. By sharing her images and thoughts about pressing issues, engaging her community, and leveraging her social media presence, she has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for various animal nonprofits around the world.

Sophie has won several prestigious photography awards for her work (including a Sony World Photography Award in 2014), as well as advocacy awards for her dedication to animal rescue and adoption.

Sophie's work has been published in the press worldwide, online and in print (from National Geographic to Oprah Magazine).  Her first book, Wet Dog, came out in October 2015 and her second, Pit Bull Flower Power, in 2018, thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign.

EXHIBITIONS

2023 (Sept. - Jan.) : Group Show, BEST IN SHOW, Fotografiska New York City
2022 (Oct.): Solo show, The Invisible Wounds of Friendship, Los Angeles
2022 (Oct.): 212 Photography Istanbul, Turkey
2022: Group Show, THE PET SHOW, Fotografiska Tallin
2021 (Oct. - Feb 2022): Group show, THE PET SHOW, Fotografiska Stockholm, Sweden
2021 (May - Dec.): Group show, LOVE – Animal stories, Musée de la Vie wallonne, Belgium
2019 (Sept.): Solo show, Portal, Governors Island, NY
2019 (May): Group show, Photoville, Los Angeles
2018 (Oct.): Solo show, Invisible Dog, Brooklyn NY
2017 (Oct.): Solo show, Invisible Dog, Brooklyn NY
2017 (Oct.-April): Group show, The Vendue, Charleston SC
2017 (May): Solo show, Invisible Dog, Brooklyn
2017 (April): Solo show, Russell Fine Art gallery, Austin Texas
2016 (Sept.): Solo show, Photoville, Brooklyn
2015 (Sept. - Oct.): Solo show, Flower Power (Gallery Adrien / Kavachnina, Paris)
2015 (July): px3 winners exhibit (Espace Beaurepaire, Paris)
2015 (April): Resquoo (New York)
2015 (Jan./Feb.): Watchdog, group show "Heroes" (gallery 28 Matignon, Paris)
2014 (Oct./Dec.): Flower Power (gallery 28 Matignon, Paris)
2014 (May): Wet Dog, group show, winners of the Sony Award (Sommerset House, London)

AWARDS

International Photography Award 2020, Fine-art Book - 3rd place for Pit Bull Flower Power
px3 2015 - 1st Place Fine Art
Life Framer 2015 - 1st Place
RangeFinder Best Friends 2015 - 1st Place
ND Award 2014 - 1st Place Fine Art
International Photography Awards 2014 - 1st Place Fine Art / Portrait
Sony World Photography Awards 2014 - 1st Place Portraiture

Animal Advocacy Awards:
Hero of the Year 2017, Kris Carr award, January 2018
Mary Tyler Moore Award, Awarded by Broadway Barks, June 2017
New York City's Kindest, ACC Gala, December 2015, for the #EasyAsACC adoption campaign
"Hero of the Year" for Flower Power, Awarded by Mr Bones & Co during Rescue The Runway, June 2015
Leonard Simon Award, Awarded by Animal Haven, June 2015

PUBLICATIONS

Sophie's work has been featured, among others, in National Geographic, Oprah Magazine, Gente di Fotografia, The Huffington Post, Medium/Vantage, Time out New York and London, Süddeutsche, the Daily Mail, The Mirror, The Telegraph, Guardian, The Independent, La Repubblica, El Colombiano, CNN, Yahoo, MSN, Medium, This is Colossal, Feature Shoot, View, on the TODAY show The Talk, Buzzfeed, Bored Panda, Laughing Squid, Slate, Andrew Sullivan’s The Dish, Gawker, My Modern Metropolis, Twenty Two Words...