She Shoots Horses…
Combining two of her favourite interests; fashion and horses, Vanessa has gathered inspiration from her teenage memories of living in the delightful county of Somerset, where she volunteered weekly at a riding for the disabled centre, and loaned an enchanting, grey, Andalusian stallion named, Salinero, while combining it with her photographic inspirations such as surrealist artist, Man Ray. She uses both digital and darkroom processes such as photograms (e.g. the rosette and cowboy boots print) to create a body of contemporary photographic imagery. Making her decision on her chosen techniques based on the popularity of the horse as a worldwide symbol and its long history relationship with people, Vanessa hopes her work approaches the horse from a more fine art perspective.
Taking images using a slow shutter speed whilst running with the horse itself, Vanessa was able to capture the wildness and passion of the horse in motion, in collation to the the more classicalism approach of portraiture in the stylistic shots, exhibiting the beauty of shape, strength and silhouette.
The horse is one of the oldest animals in the world, documented hundreds of times, through hundreds of ways, yet it still retains an aura of curiosity that creatives want to explore.
The biggest thanks to:
Treliever Equestrian Centre in Penryn, in particular Shelley Mayer, for supporting and encouraging me and my work in my three years at university.
To Chris Cooke and Maz Rasoolzadeh for their kindness and allowing me to photograph their incredible facilities and capture their enlightening relationship between them and their horses.
Emily Ashenden and her horse Geronimo - one of the most fashionable horses I've met! Go check out their work!
The most wonderful and trusting models, Iona Selman, Savka Aileen, Robyn Clark, Sofia Valles, Sasha Glasscock and Merlin Urbala. It was a pleasure to work with you all.
Last but not least, the horses themselves for being so patient in-between shots and performing fantastically on camera! They deserve a thousand carrots!
