The Lone Horseman
Just outside the city of Cappadocia in the eastern Anatolian region of Turkey, there lies a cowboy and his son that preserve the right for the regions wild horses to remain free.
Hundreds of wild horses roam the valley below the Erciyes Mountains; I had the opportunity to visit and capture not just the horses but these cowboys.
Cappadocia is known for it’s hot air balloons, but it translates to “the land of beautiful horses” just outside of the city reside the cowboys of Cappadocia, keeping tradition alive as they coral the wild horses to be captured, not into captivity, but by a lens that seeks to share their beauty with the world. I didn’t grow up around horses, but as I spend more and more time around them, I am captivated by the connection we, as humans, are granted with them. I’ve felt as though they knew my fears and my heart, and in something I cannot describe, as if they knew my past and accepted me fully in that moment. Studies have shown how a horse can read the emotions of a human, how our joy or fear can even impact their actions. When I capture a portrait of an Individual, it is for me a deep honor to be trusted and granted the opportunity to share how, in a moment, I have seen someone. Yet a horse, I feel this connection, the life in their spirit, the power that is so paralleled by peace, something about the way they are a part of the earth itself, how they become a part of the landscape, the way the dust rises beneath their feet as they shake the earth.
The cowboy’s life here is different from the image we might picture, different than the “Wild West”. They are caretakers of history, protectors of a tradition that allows what is wild to roam free. These horses once served as workhorses for the nearby farms by summer, and by winter were released to live on their own as they chose. As times have changed, less and less were brought in for the summer, and many have never known life to be tamed. The cowboys may own the horses, but seek to preserve their way of life, they ensure enough hay is laid to the fields in harsh winters, and that every effort to conserve their way of life is made. As times changed and the land was sought for industrialization, the cowboys fought back, for the horses to remain free, for the land to be their home, and it stands protected to this day because of their efforts. The freedom of the horses is preserved by the cowboys, and the cowboys, in a way, a parallel spirit that respects the land and the ones that run free upon it.
Just outside the city of Cappadocia in the eastern Anatolian region of Turkey, there lies a cowboy and his son that preserve the right for the regions wild horses to remain free.
Hundreds of wild horses roam the valley below the Erciyes Mountains; I had the opportunity to visit and capture not just the horses but these cowboys.
Cappadocia is known for it’s hot air balloons, but it translates to “the land of beautiful horses” just outside of the city reside the cowboys of Cappadocia, keeping tradition alive as they coral the wild horses to be captured, not into captivity, but by a lens that seeks to share their beauty with the world. I didn’t grow up around horses, but as I spend more and more time around them, I am captivated by the connection we, as humans, are granted with them. I’ve felt as though they knew my fears and my heart, and in something I cannot describe, as if they knew my past and accepted me fully in that moment. Studies have shown how a horse can read the emotions of a human, how our joy or fear can even impact their actions. When I capture a portrait of an Individual, it is for me a deep honor to be trusted and granted the opportunity to share how, in a moment, I have seen someone. Yet a horse, I feel this connection, the life in their spirit, the power that is so paralleled by peace, something about the way they are a part of the earth itself, how they become a part of the landscape, the way the dust rises beneath their feet as they shake the earth.
The cowboy’s life here is different from the image we might picture, different than the “Wild West”. They are caretakers of history, protectors of a tradition that allows what is wild to roam free. These horses once served as workhorses for the nearby farms by summer, and by winter were released to live on their own as they chose. As times have changed, less and less were brought in for the summer, and many have never known life to be tamed. The cowboys may own the horses, but seek to preserve their way of life, they ensure enough hay is laid to the fields in harsh winters, and that every effort to conserve their way of life is made. As times changed and the land was sought for industrialization, the cowboys fought back, for the horses to remain free, for the land to be their home, and it stands protected to this day because of their efforts. The freedom of the horses is preserved by the cowboys, and the cowboys, in a way, a parallel spirit that respects the land and the ones that run free upon it.
Just outside the city of Cappadocia in the eastern Anatolian region of Turkey, there lies a cowboy and his son that preserve the right for the regions wild horses to remain free.
Hundreds of wild horses roam the valley below the Erciyes Mountains; I had the opportunity to visit and capture not just the horses but these cowboys.
Cappadocia is known for it’s hot air balloons, but it translates to “the land of beautiful horses” just outside of the city reside the cowboys of Cappadocia, keeping tradition alive as they coral the wild horses to be captured, not into captivity, but by a lens that seeks to share their beauty with the world. I didn’t grow up around horses, but as I spend more and more time around them, I am captivated by the connection we, as humans, are granted with them. I’ve felt as though they knew my fears and my heart, and in something I cannot describe, as if they knew my past and accepted me fully in that moment. Studies have shown how a horse can read the emotions of a human, how our joy or fear can even impact their actions. When I capture a portrait of an Individual, it is for me a deep honor to be trusted and granted the opportunity to share how, in a moment, I have seen someone. Yet a horse, I feel this connection, the life in their spirit, the power that is so paralleled by peace, something about the way they are a part of the earth itself, how they become a part of the landscape, the way the dust rises beneath their feet as they shake the earth.
The cowboy’s life here is different from the image we might picture, different than the “Wild West”. They are caretakers of history, protectors of a tradition that allows what is wild to roam free. These horses once served as workhorses for the nearby farms by summer, and by winter were released to live on their own as they chose. As times have changed, less and less were brought in for the summer, and many have never known life to be tamed. The cowboys may own the horses, but seek to preserve their way of life, they ensure enough hay is laid to the fields in harsh winters, and that every effort to conserve their way of life is made. As times changed and the land was sought for industrialization, the cowboys fought back, for the horses to remain free, for the land to be their home, and it stands protected to this day because of their efforts. The freedom of the horses is preserved by the cowboys, and the cowboys, in a way, a parallel spirit that respects the land and the ones that run free upon it.
This print will arrive framed and dimensions are 16”x20”