When Elias Weiss Friedman left his job in brand strategy during a New York layoff, he dusted off his camera, wandered the streets, and started asking strangers a question no one else was asking: Can I photograph your dog?
That simple act became The Dogist, a storytelling movement with over 11 million followers and more than 50,000 dogs photographed worldwide. What began as an experiment in street photography evolved into a profound exploration of love, connection, and what it means to matter.
In Passion Struck Episode 688, I sat down with Elias to explore how dogs help us remember we matter. What began as a street photography project evolved into a global movement that celebrates connection, empathy, and the healing power of our four-legged friends.
How Dogs Help Us Remember We Matter in Everyday Life
Elias describes The Dogist as a form of โemotional anthropology.โ Every photo tells a story about the connection between people, places, and the animals who quietly anchor them.
โBefore you get a dog, you know your neighbor,โ he told me. โAfter you get a dog, you know your neighborhood.โ
Dogs, he says, are social catalysts. They donโt just fetch sticks. They fetch community. They help us to start mattering.
The Light They Carry
Eliasโs latest book, This Dog Will Change Your Life, begins not with cute street photos but with a question: What is a dog?
He explains that dogs are entirely human inventionsโcreatures we bred from wolves to serve, protect, and eventually love us. Yet the miracle is that in shaping them, they reshaped us.
โDogs have an innate positivity,โ Elias told me. โThey live in the present. They donโt dwell on the past or worry about failure. They just look forward and trust.โ
That trust, that relentless optimism, is why dogs help us remember we matter. They meet us without ego, judgment, or agenda. They lead with love when humans so often lead with doubt. They lead with faith while we so often lead with fear. Spend enough time around a dog, and some of that light rubs off.
Healing Companions
Elias has worked closely with service-dog programs for veterans and first responders. Heโs seen what no medication or therapy can duplicateโthe way a dog wordlessly regulates a personโs nervous system.
He told me about a Marine who confided, โI wouldnโt be here if it werenโt for this dog.โ The veteranโs wife had never heard a single war story. The dog had heard them all.
Thatโs the power of nonjudgmental presence. A dog doesnโt need to understand trauma to absorb it. They just stay, listen, breathe beside you until your body remembers safety again.
As a veteran myself, I know this truth firsthand: a dogโs heartbeat beside you can steady your own.
Rescue and Responsibility
Not all the stories Elias tells are pretty. Heโs photographed rescues in Puerto Rico with activist Chrissy Beckles, who saves abandoned animals on what locals call โDead Dog Beach.โ Chrissy is allergic to dogs, yet she crawls through the sand, covered in ticks, to feed them and carry them out, one by one, by hand.
That, Elias says, is the definition of love that matters: inconvenient, gritty, and real. โDogs arenโt meant to languish in small cages,โ he told me. โThey belong with their people.โ
Rescue work, like human compassion, begins when we stop scrolling and start showing up.
That, Elias says, is the definition of love that matters: inconvenient, gritty, and real. โDogs arenโt meant to languish in small cages,โ he told me. โThey belong with their people.โ
Rescue work, like human compassion, begins when we stop scrolling and start showing up.
The DogโHuman Mirror
We also talked about the uncanny way owners and dogs start to resemble one another. Elias calls it the dogโhuman mirror.
โEveryone finds their dog,โ he said. โAnd we become more like each other. Mostly in the best ways.โ
Thatโs the essence of how dogs help us remember we matter. They reflect our best selves back to us. Their loyalty softens our edges; their calm steadies our chaos. In loving them, we relearn how to love ourselves.
A Simple Assignment with Profound Impact
When I asked Elias for one practice that could deepen our connection with our dogs, his answer was beautifully simple:
โSit with them. No phone. Just be there. And on your next walk, let them sniff a little longer. Pulling them away from a good scent is like taking a great book out of their hands.โ
Thatโs more than dog advice. Itโs a manifesto for being human. Presence over productivity. Wonder over rush. Connection over content.
Guest Bio – Elias Weiss Friedman
Elias Weiss Friedman, better known as The Dogist, is a world-renowned photographer, storyteller, and advocate for the extraordinary bond between humans and dogs. Since launching The Dogist in 2013, he has photographed more than 50,000 dogs worldwide, building a community of over 11 million followers who celebrate the joy, resilience, and character of canines everywhere.
A former brand strategist turned visual anthropologist, Elias has been featured by National Geographic, The New York Times, NPR, and The Today Show, among others. His work captures the profound ways dogs connect usโto ourselves, to each other, and to what truly matters.
He is the New York Times bestselling author of The Dogist: Photographic Encounters with 1,000 Dogs and his newest book, This Dog Will Change Your Life, a heart-expanding exploration of how dogs illuminate the best parts of being human.
Learn More and Connect
๐ All episode links, my books You Matter, Luma, and Passion Struck, The Ignited Life newsletter, and the Start Mattering store are here: linktr.ee/John_R_Miles
๐๏ธ StartMattering.com | ๐ TheIgnitedLife.net