L O O K I N G T O G E T L O S T: Street Dogs of South America Project

The long forgotten members of Chile, as well as many other South American countries, are the countless stray dogs wandering the streets. As a foreigner their presence is striking. They can be seen sleeping in the middle of sidewalks, begging for food outside of grocery stores and wandering in packs through side streets.

I find these untouchable, lower class citizens fascinating and thoroughly entertaining. Although I seem to be the only one. Almost everybody else ignores them and in some cases even abuses them. A small group of people treat the dogs with love and affection and take care of tiny neighborhood groups, but this is rare. Apparently it is common for dogs to be kicked to the street once they grow up and are no longer adorable and pint-size. This obviously only perpetuates the stray dog problem in Chile, along with a number of other factors.

My very first day in Chile three years ago I noticed the number of stray dogs in the streets and since then I have been photographing them whenever I can. I have photographed well over a hundred dogs in Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina in the last three years and continue to document them as an ongoing project.

I have found that street dogs are the most well behaved dogs I have ever come across. Life on the street has taught them they need to keep in line and need to get along with everyone around them if they want to eat and get by without problems. They are free to wander around and run and jump and play with others when every they want. The dogs with owners in Chile are locked up all day and seem to go a little crazy having little to no space to exercise and no contact with any other people or dogs. They also seem to be horribly misbehaved with little to no training. They bark all day and night and jump on anything and everyone that they encounter. This isn't to say life is easy for a street dog, but they do have a level of freedom and manners that most other dogs don't have.

In upcoming posts I will recount some of the more interesting experiences I have had with these dogs. For now, here are some outtakes from photographing them: