Salvados • Mathias de Lattre (series)

Doug, Gazhal, Lola… Saved. These few dogs are saved indeed today, after a long time of mistreatment. In Spain, most of the podencos and galgos (Spanish greyhounds) live a daily hell. Enduring an intense training to hunt and stamina, any bad performance is fatal to them. Abused, receiving too little or no food, they are also rarely adopted, being considered as "too common, too rustic, as well as too dynamic". Through the ages, they were definitely not prepared to such a destiny by their breed history. The 22 year-old photographer Mathias de Lattre pays them a moving tribute as he pictures and shares with us a few moments of complicity. “A period of adaptation is necessary, especially with these hounds, which were all mistreated. They are clearly afraid of men”, Mathias confides. “Consequently, the dog has to be relaxed for the photoshoot. To get that, I spend some time with the hound beforehand so that it can get used to my presence. Sometimes, the hounds are so shell-shocked that they only stay a few seconds in front of my Hasselblad before getting back to their kennels straight away.” Mathias created this series of portraits as if they were persons. Thus, he got down to their levels in order to catch their eyes in their daily environment. It was important to him to “put them on a par with humans”. From these gazes, the same story arises, the same nightmare that can’t be erased. But the elegance, the delicacy and the pride of these animals finally remain stronger than everything. “I was interested in these dogs in particular because they have an innate and blatant grace. From an anthropomorphic point of view, similarities with humans can be found in their gestures and sensitive, delicate expressions. That is what I wanted to show in this series”, Mathias concludes.

Mathias de Lattre | France | The Developer #35 | en français