Perfect breeding
You may already have seen Tim Flach's extraordinary photographs of horses, first published in 2008 in his book, 'Equus'.
If you haven't, this image of a chestnut Arabian captures all the unique qualities that made Equus such a success then, and make it still so remarkable now.
Taken on locations all over the world, Tim Flach's photographs show horses in every possible light, from the high art of a gleaming epitome of perfectly groomed good breeding, to the sun-baked reality of a dusty herd of mustangs in the semi desert of Utah.
Owned by HH Sheikh Ammar bin Humaid Al Nuaimi, Crown Prince of Ajman, and photographed at the Ajman Stud, the chestnut framed against a desert background illustrates perfectly what Tim Flach set out to achieve in his seven year quest to reflect just what makes horses so fascinating to humans - the barely harnessed wildness and the natural beauty of an animal that, as Tim's introduction on his website points out, has captured the human imagination like no other.
The Equus images also capture the essence of all the different ways that man has celebrated the horse in art, from cave paintings and rock carvings to Renaissance sculpture and the paintings of Stubbs.
Look at Tim's images of native breeds in their own primeval habitat and you see them as the earliest cave painters saw them. And once you've seen this image of the chestnut, suddenly you realise that Stubbs was painting real racehorses exactly as he saw them after all, and not an exaggerated fashionable ideal of the day.
With Tim's kind permission we'll post more of his Equus images on the BEDMAX site over the coming month.
In the meantime you can find the full Equus collection on Tim Flach's website by clicking here: www.timflach.com
If you haven't, this image of a chestnut Arabian captures all the unique qualities that made Equus such a success then, and make it still so remarkable now.
Taken on locations all over the world, Tim Flach's photographs show horses in every possible light, from the high art of a gleaming epitome of perfectly groomed good breeding, to the sun-baked reality of a dusty herd of mustangs in the semi desert of Utah.
Owned by HH Sheikh Ammar bin Humaid Al Nuaimi, Crown Prince of Ajman, and photographed at the Ajman Stud, the chestnut framed against a desert background illustrates perfectly what Tim Flach set out to achieve in his seven year quest to reflect just what makes horses so fascinating to humans - the barely harnessed wildness and the natural beauty of an animal that, as Tim's introduction on his website points out, has captured the human imagination like no other.
The Equus images also capture the essence of all the different ways that man has celebrated the horse in art, from cave paintings and rock carvings to Renaissance sculpture and the paintings of Stubbs.
Look at Tim's images of native breeds in their own primeval habitat and you see them as the earliest cave painters saw them. And once you've seen this image of the chestnut, suddenly you realise that Stubbs was painting real racehorses exactly as he saw them after all, and not an exaggerated fashionable ideal of the day.
With Tim's kind permission we'll post more of his Equus images on the BEDMAX site over the coming month.
In the meantime you can find the full Equus collection on Tim Flach's website by clicking here: www.timflach.com
Since horse lovers are almost invariably dog lovers too, you may be interested to know that Tim Flach is just about to publish a new book that celebrates dogs in the same wonderful way that Equus celebrates the horse.
