Sophie Gamand

Sophie Gamand, award-winning photographer, artist, advocate. Los Angeles. sophiegamand.com.

09/01/2026

Welcome to September! My birthday month 🙂 Also, in my calendar, Rachel's month! Rachel had a really rough beginning, but found the perfect family and is a testament to so many dogs like her. She was rescued from a large dogfighting operation in 2015. Shy and wary of touch at first, she proved to be both smart and gentle, learned to appreciate massages and became a staff favorite. Three years later, Tim was visiting the shelter and noticed Rachel. That day, children were reading books to adoptable dogs, and all the dogs were “going crazy.” Not Rachel. “She had laid down like she was listening to every word two little girls were reading to her. We knew she was the right fit as we have three children. Rachel is very protective of them. She loves her sleep and snuggles with the kids at night. She has been a blessing to our family and has brought much light into our home.”

08/01/2026

Welcome to August! If you have my calendar, you are spending the month with sweet Dove from Wallis Annenberg PetSpace. It took a while for Dove to find her home, but it was well worth the wait!
“Dove has taught us that kindness doesn’t have an expiration date,” Lily wrote after bringing longtimer Dove home. “We found Dove on the shelter’s website. Your photos were instrumental as they captured her essence and soul. We wanted to save a senior dog who needed a good home for the end of their life. Since coming home, Dove has made our lives so much better. She is pure gold. I’ve never met a dog as sweet as her. She loved meeting our horse and I think they are becoming best friends. Dove only wants love and only knows love. She snuggles up with you and has been comforting my recently widowed grandfather.”

07/24/2026

What does it mean to archive a body but not a life?
I had the most amazing residency at the (Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County). As a kid I was fascinated by skeletons -- I once did a summer camp where we dug up human skeletons (don't ask me!!!!). I wanted to become a paleontologist. I just loved the idea of digging up stories, learning about the people and animals who came before us. We live upon layers and layers of all the dead who came before us. I find this idea fascinating and strangely, reassuring. We are all part of a larger tapestry.
During my residency, I explored the sacredness of remains used for scientific purposes. When it comes to animals, they cannot give their consent to being used in this way after death, and as an animal chaplain, I find this idea challenging. Especially when their bones might have been archived, but not their stories. We don't know who they were, what they loved, what mattered to them...
For this series of images, I used my gloved hands to animate these skulls, like sacred puppets, erecting them to sainthood by using some on-camera tricks. This was all done in camera, no photoshop - and certainly no AI!

Caption:
1. Pug Skull (1930). Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Mammalogy Department, Catalog Number LACM 30595. © Sophie Gamand, 2025.
2. Dog Skull from San Nicholas Island, CA (1931). Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Mammalogy Department, Catalog Number LACM 30615. © Sophie Gamand, 2025.
3. Skull of a juvenile Brussels Griffon (1929). Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Mammalogy Department, Catalog Number LACM 30536. © Sophie Gamand, 2025.

07/21/2026

A look at the largest hand-embroidery I've made! The Theatrics of Play/Fight, 2022. Can you tell which dog is playing, and which dog is fighting?

This large piece is composed of hand-stitched embroidery, thrifted fabrics and flower appliques. It is inspired by French medieval tapestries.

It is not easy for the human eye to decipher the subtle ways in which dogs communicate with each other. Often, humans’ mere presence disrupts the balance that exists between dogs, and causes dangerous interference.

This hand-stitched embroidery took 4 months to complete. The dog on the left was modeled after a dog playing with another dog. The dog on the right was modeled after a dog engaged in an organized dog fight in Afghanistan.

07/19/2026

It really sucks having a big heart in a world that moves too fast to care.
Let this be your reminder that you are never alone.
Whether you are a rescuer, a shelter worker, an advocate, a foster, a volunteer, or simply someone who refuses to look away, please remember that you are part of a vast network of people who feel just like you.
And caring so deeply, while it hurts, it's also what allows us to dream up a better world. So thank you for doing your share, however small you might think it is.
Tag a friend who needs the reminder!

I took these photos on rescue trips in Puerto Rico ( Sato Project), Australia (Aussie Desert Dogs), Moldova, Atlanta (Fulton County Animal Services), and South Korea.

07/14/2026

Observing free-living dogs has been a fascinating experience.

Coming from a world of rescue, where every street dog must be plucked off their environment and placed in a home (sometimes on the other side of the world), it was challenging imagining life beyond that story.

But through my travels, readings, and meeting people doing incredible work with free-living dogs, I have learned to expand my understanding of this nuanced topic.

Free-living, free-breeding dogs are beautiful. I don't want to minimize their hardship of course. It can be a really tough life and human communities have to step up to protect these dogs.

Free-living dogs do not have "owners." Sometimes they have guardians who feed and care for them, but mostly they live the life of their choosing: under the sky, with their own routines and social networks. And they are whole. They can lead rich lives, in the margins of human societies.

Yet, even in countries that have a long history of cooperating and coexisting with these dogs, we can see an increase of violence. For example in Turkey and India, where governments have recently made dramatic changes to the way they view these dogs, and have called for their destruction.

We still have a long way to go to protect these dogs against ourselves and the violence that undoubtedly lurks for them. But decentering ourselves and seeing their experience of the world through their eyes, can be a beautiful step.

All things are true at once. That some dogs need rescuing, others do not. That the world is a violent place, and yet we all can find our way to experience full lives.

These photos are from archives and trips I have taken to Australia to meet aboriginal free-living dogs and dingoes (), Moldova (.vet.moldova and .international), Colombia (with my friend ), and Ecuador ().

To learn more about this topic, I encourage you to follow the wonderful and the work she does through , Rachel from , and Valli from .

07/12/2026

Sometimes the deck chooses for you! My Oracle deck is inspired by shelter dogs and features 50 former shelter dogs with powerful messages. ✨💫

07/11/2026

I got to witness the power of community during a spay/neuter clinic in rural Ecuador. Most people there don’t own a car. Kids walk 30min, 1h through muddy paths to get to school. Showing up for a spay/neuter appointment is a big sacrifice and commitment. Yet when Soul Dog Rescue showed up with their team, the slots available filled up quickly. 💫✨

07/10/2026

Little reminder... Everyone needs love, and sometimes, especially those who might seem rougher around the edges.

07/08/2026

What does it mean to archive a specimen, but not a life?

These dog skeletons and skulls are stored in boxes in the mammalogy collection of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Many entered the archive in the early 20th century, when veterinarians, collectors, and researchers preserved unusual skulls or anatomical curiosities. The dogs were cataloged as specimens, measured, numbered, and filed away.

Yet dogs occupy a strange place in natural history collections. As domesticated companions, they are often considered less scientifically significant than wild species. Perhaps too familiar, too close to us. And so many of these remains rest disarticulated in drawers. Their bones are preserved, but their lives have largely vanished from the record.

To archive a specimen is to stabilize a body for study. But what does it mean to preserve bones without preserving the story of the being they once belonged to? These animals lived intimately alongside humans, sharing our homes, working for us, roaming our streets. Who were they? Companions, workers, strays, experiments? Who held them, who relied on them, who mourned them?

Animals do not consent to becoming specimens. In death, their bodies may continue to serve science, but their stories are rarely told. This work looks into the archive not only as a scientific space, but as a site of absence—where bodies remain, but lives have been reduced to numbers, labels, and fragments.

Address

Los Angeles, CA

Website

https://www.sophiegamand.com/

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