Photographer Sophie Gamand on Her Life-Saving Dog Photography and Animal Advocacy

Sophie Gamand is a French award-winning photographer and animal advocate living and working in New York. Her most known series are Wet Dog and Pit Bull Flower Power.

Since 2010, Sophie has been focusing on dogs and our relationship with them. She travels around the U.S. (and abroad) to photograph shelter dogs and at-risk dogs. By telling their stories on her social media, Sophie helps these dogs find homes, and brings support to the nonprofits that care for them. Through these stories, it is our humanity that Sophie wishes to explore.

For her acclaimed series Pit Bull Flower Power, Sophie has photographed over 450 shelter pit bulls wearing handmade flower crowns. Shared on Sophie’s popular social media accounts, the portraits often lead to adoptions. Some of Sophie’s 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 engaging her community, and leveraging her social media presence, Sophie has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for various animal nonprofits around the world.