Horizon/Horse

On Photography and Multispecies Bonding

Abstract

Photographs and text explore multi-species empathy and loss through a long-term companionate relationship with a significant horse as teacher, collaborator, muse, and beacon. The images were made without request or instruction during acts of reciprocal caretaking and exploration. They record the pauses and accommodations of two bodies within a landscape seemingly unchanging except with the light, seasons, time, perspective, and the infinite amplitude within the daily and familiar, between human and non-human.  The body of the horse becomes actual landscape, imagined landscape, embodied landscape. The text derives from writings made in the horse’s presence.  To approach, to touch another carries a charge– whether of transgression or congruence.  The feeling of close connection in any intimate relationship also carries a sense of deep strangeness and far places. Who bodies are, where and how they occupy the landscape– itself a body– defines relationships. This project considers how (human and non-human) animals experience space and proximity, distance and absence, and how we bond to one another. Our histories and memories, yearnings, inform the through-lines of synchronous connection.