In 2017 I had the honour of having my second solo exhibition in Australia. Megan Morton’s studio, known as The School, was the perfect location to show my artwork and spend an evening in good company. Below is the story of that exhibition and the reason why I’ve been shooting horses for over 10 years now. Thank you to everyone who joined me that day and all of you out there who have supported my original artwork.

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Horses are in my blood and have been in my family’s heritage for generations. Growing up in Argentina’s La Pampa, a place named for its fertile earth, my passion for these animals was cemented and my dialogue with Horses began at an early age.

When I was born, my family gave me a female foal as a present. We were raised together and she became one of my closest friends in childhood and throughout my adolescent years. I still remember the strength of the connection I felt to her. Looking back at photos now, those feelings come flooding straight back to me.

Many years later, my photography teacher told me that the best photographs we can possibly take are of the subjects in our own backyard; that we should look deep inside ourselves for that special connection and express it through the camera’s lens. I will forever be grateful for this piece of advice. Each horse that I photograph shares my homeland, La Pampa. I visit and revisit them over and over again before I photograph them; our relationship is complex and never a one-off encounter. In these dialogues that take place through the camera’s lens, I have learned that you can look at a horse and just see a horse – or you can look deeper and find emotions, character, relationships and a deep understanding that every animal has its own spirit, personality and a defined purpose in life.

Dialogue with Horses was not only an exhibition about six horses – it represents a lifetime of interactions for me with these beautiful, powerful animals. The sensory experiences of interacting with them are some of my strongest memories; the warm, familiar smell of their coats, the feeling of running my fingers through a mane, the sound of their hoofs meeting the earth in a steady rhythm – for me, horses are the embodiment of home.

“For those who look without seeing, land is land and nothing else.” Atahualpa Yupanqui

Victoria x