The photographer I have chosen is Sophie Gamand. She is French awardwinning photographer and animal advocate living and working in New York City. Since 2010, she has been focusing on dogs and our relationship with them. She has gone to many exhibitions and published by a variety of wellknown newspapers such as the Daily Mail, The Mirror and The Guardian. Her work relates to my theme because she photographs dogs to make them look more lovable and friendly. Sophie Gamand has 2 websites, one of them being about her and her work and the second dedicated to helping homeless pets, called “Striking Paws”. It is one of her projects to help find homeless dogs a home. By volunteering to help organise calendars, photo booths at fundraisers and donating items at auctions, she has helped raised thousands of dollars towards shelter for homeless animals. Sophie has helped homeless animals through promoting adoptable animals, teaching the importance of what a good shelter should look like and also awareness campaigns. Her latest and most successful one yet is a calendar called “Flower Power: Pit Bulls of the Revolution” which is dedicated to shelter pit bulls. Moreover, she has done a book called “Wet Dog”, capturing dogs looking happy during their least favourite time; bath time. She has even persuaded a majority of the public that pit bulls are not what everyone thinks they are. After seeing the breed photographed with flowers, it has made some people second guess their aggressive nature as they are known to be the most dog to be euthanized in America. The choice of lightening and colour used in the photograph, makes it look friendlier and compliments the flowers and the facial expression on the dog. She has infused a softer energy into the photos to hopefully change the fate of this breed. This is the main focus behind this campaign as they’re all pictures of pitbulls.
Animals are portrayed to be less important and less worthy then humans, for example animal testing. Sophie Gamand’s intentions are to show more of an understanding that dogs or any animal have the same value as humans. “I photograph 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 fulfil 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 own human society, and our shortcomings. “– Sophie Gamand In her work, she mainly focuses on taking pictures of dogs with flowers on their head or during a bath. However, these pictures focus on her campaigns.
This picture was taken for her book “Wet Dogs”. The purpose behind this book was to emphasis the bond that you develop with your dogs; so by doing this, Sophie explored the many facial expressions that dogs may give during bath time. This can be a vulnerable time for dogs so it allowed her to capture the reactions that she was hoping for. She ended up having over 120 portraits of wet dogs to put in her book.
Bibliography Website- http://www.sophiegamand.com
Article- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3263635/Photographerputs-orphaned-dogs-flower-crowns-sweet-picture-series-aims-changereputations-violent-aggressive-animals.html Interview- http://photogrvphy.com/sophie-gamand-interview-with-dogphotographer/ Reviews- http://www.sophiegamand.com/press/ http://www.strikingpaws.com/about