Artist Bio
Tori Gagne is a fine art photographer known for her contemporary equine, wild horse, landscape, and nature photography. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she holds a BFA in Fine Art Photography from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Her love of photography began in grade school, working with a pinhole camera and developing film in the darkroom of her family home. She was deeply influenced by her mother and brother, who were both professional photographers.
Her retired off-the-track Thoroughbred, Glacier Point, led her into the world of the horse and inspired her to devote much of her work to equine subjects. Gagne has a particular affinity for America’s wild horses and the landscapes of the American West, traveling several times each year to photograph herds on public lands throughout the western United States. Her photography has also taken her to wild horse sanctuaries across the country and on special projects to Sable Island, Nova Scotia, the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and international locations.
Through her imagery, Gagne hopes to inspire greater awareness of the challenges facing America’s wild horses. Competing demands involving ranching, land use, water and mineral rights, development, invasive species, and conservation continue to place pressure on wild horse populations and their habitat on shared public lands.
Gagne strives to create expressive photographs that find grace in small details and reveal the relationship between the horse, landscape, movement, and the natural world. Her work ranges from intimate equine portraits and expansive landscapes to more impressionistic photographic works created through intentional camera movement, multiple exposure, and compositing.
Her limited-edition fine art photographs are collected nationally and internationally and are available to private collectors, interior designers, art consultants, and through select gallery relationships. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and recognized with international photography awards. Selected recent exhibitions, events, and awards are listed below.
Her photographs are held in private collections throughout the United States, including Aspen, Bozeman, Los Angeles, Park City, Santa Fe, Santa Barbara, Sun Valley, Nashville, Minneapolis, Phoenix, and Whitefish, as well as internationally in Montreal, Toronto, Queensland, and Athens.
Gagne currently resides in Orono, Minnesota.
Ten percent of proceeds from Gagne’s equine photography is donated to organizations working to protect wild horse populations in the western United States.
My off-the-track thoroughbred, Glacier Point, is a grandson of Secretariat and where I got my 'horse fix' on a regular basis. In November 2025, on a beautiful November day, I lovingly said goodbye to him at the age of 29. He is buried in a peaceful pasture at the barn where I kept him, a place that will always hold part of my heart. I think of him running free now as even at 29 he still thought he was a racehorse! I keep his mane and tail on my desk, and in those sacred pieces of him, I feel his presence every day.
Recent Exhibitions and Awards
Solo Exhibitions
2023-’24 exhibition Minneapolis International Airport
2022 Art Santa Fe
2017-2018 Lipton Fine Arts Ketchum, Idaho ‘Art of Equus’ Contemporary Photographs
Group Exhibitions
2026 Intersect Palm Springs Art and Design Fair February 12-16
2026 Art Comes Alive ADC Fine Art November 2025 -January 31, 2026
2025 Red Dot Miami Art Fair December 3-7
2025 ADC Fine Art Cincinnati Radiance Summer Show June 6- July 25
2025 Scottsdale Ferrari Art and Design Fair March
2024 Square VIII Decode Gallery Tucson, Arizona
2023 Radius Gallery Missoula, MT. Holiday Small Print Exhibition and Sale
2023 Texas Photographic Society Members Show , January 19-March 11. Center for Contemporary Art Abilene, TX. Juried by Keith Carter
2022 Art San Diego with ADC Fine Art
2022 Save Our Wild Horse and Wild Life on America’s Western Lands Wasington, DC.
2022 Winter group show Burnet Fine Art and Advisory Wayzata, MN
2022 LA Art Fair January
2021 Gallerie Valid Photo Awards Show Barcelona December
2021 Praxis Gallery Animal Beings Juried by Laura Valenti
2021 SE Center for Photography Fauna Juried by Carol Erb
2020 Fresh a Summer Selection Burnet Fine Fine Art and Advisory Wayzata, MN
2020 Minnesota State Fair Art Fair St Paul, MN
2019 Studio Gallerie B&B Paris, France Group Show Elise Prudhomme Juror
2019 A Smith Gallery Johnson City, TX ‘Botanical’ Wendi Schneider Juror
2019 Julia Margaret Cameron Awards Show Barcelona, Galerie Valid Foto 2019 Let's Go 2 Burnet Fine Art and Advisory Wayzata, MN
Awards & Publications
2025 reFocus Awards Winner Color Photography Silver Award in Domestic Animal Category
2025 reFocus Award Nominee Color Photography in Wildlife, Fine Art and Domestic Animal Categories
2024 Shadow and Light Magazine Feature
2023 EQ Living Magazine Artist Feature
2023 Julia Margaret Cameron Awards Honorable Mention Fine Art Series
2023 reFocus Awards Awards Nominee for Landscape and Wild Life Categories
2022 International Color Awards Honorable Mention and 5 Nominations
2021 Black and White Spider Awards Nominee In Fine Art, Wild Life Categories
2021 Julia Margaret Cameron Awards 2nd Place Culture and Daily Life Plus 3 Honorable Mentions in Nature People and Open Theme
2021 Siena Creative Photography Awards Short List for images from Songs of the Trees Series
2021 International Color Awards Honorable Mention in Wildlife and Americana Categories with several other images receiving nominations.
2020 Julia Margaret Cameron Awards Honorable Mention in Alternative Process, Fine Art , Nature and Open Theme categories for Wild Horse and Tree Series. Elizabeth Avedon Juror
2019 Julia Margaret Cameron Awards Honorable Mention Elizabeth Biondi juror
2019 Feature Shoot grant awarded for work with wild horse photography at Return to Freedom Wild Horse Sanctuary and Conservation