A vast open landscape with golden grassy fields in the foreground and rolling hills in the background under a clear, pale blue sky.

IN THE FIELD

Every piece begins somewhere wild.

The Pennines are not a gentle landscape. They resist prettiness: all peat bog and exposed moorland, sky that changes faster than you can photograph it, light that arrives sideways and leaves without warning.

This is where my practice is rooted. Not in the studio, but out there, in places that feel older than us and exist entirely on their own terms, and that are changing faster than most of us notice.

HOW I WORK

I photograph the horses as they are, in the places they live, and I never stage or pose them. I work on foot, at the animals' pace, keeping enough distance that they carry on with their lives around me. What I am after is not a perfect portrait, but an honest picture of a rare animal on its own ground, and of that ground as it is now.

PATIENCE

Every piece begins with being present. I work slowly and quietly in the landscape, waiting for the moment a horse moves without awareness of being watched, or light falls across moorland in a way that won't last. Patience is the first part of the process.

RETURNING

I go back to the same places again and again. Each year I travel to Holy Isle to spend time with three herds of Eriskay ponies, learning their ground and watching how they live through the seasons. Closer to home, I walk Saddleworth Moor month after month, through fire damage and recovery. Returning is how I come to know a place well enough to notice what is changing.

THE PRINTS

Back home, I print each photograph by hand, in small editions. The printing is quiet, careful work, and it is there to serve the picture, never to take its place.

  • A person lying on rocks on a hillside, aiming a camera with a large telephoto lens at the landscape, which includes a body of water and rolling hills in the background under a cloudy sky.
  • A person applying green watercolor paint to paper with a wide brush, with several sheets of paper laid out on a wooden table, and a jar of dark green or black paint nearby.
  • A field with dry grass and four shiny blue solar panels lying on the ground. In the foreground, there is a white container with a spray bottle inside.
  • Van Dyke Brown Print