Growing up on the argentinian countryside, horses have always been a part of photographer juan lamarca's life and are the inspiration for his latest work. HORSE Series, is an abstract collection of photographs featuring high performance horses. The images seek to capture the essence of the horse while concentrating primarily on the simplicity of detail and line. By highlighting the dueling natures of the horse: beauty and power, the photographs explore the harmony and strength found in their complementary opposites.
The symbolic depiction of the horse in art throughout history stirs an arresting sentiment within us, an intoxicating combination of romance, and bravery - humbling power and spirit married with grace and obedience. Lamarca's photographs capture both sides of the horses essential nature, each image imbued with palpable tranquility despite the excitement, kicked up grass, a swish of a tail, the contracted muscles of a rearing horse, viewed up-close through tight crops in lucid detail.
Inspired by nietzsche's concept of “primordial unity" from the birth of the tragedy , and abstract painter piet mondrian's concept of beauty as a relationship between complementaries, lamarca's photographs encompass a unique combination of their most prominent theories.nietzsche's “primordial unity,” proclaims that at the root of every great artistic creation is the representation of two coexisting opposing impulses: the apollonian (rational thinking, order, and logic) and the dionysian (irrationality, chaos, emotions and instincts). Similarly, horses embody a complex interplay between contrasting notions of threatening power and serene beauty. PIET Mondrian proposed that beauty is based on a relationship between complementaries and balanced forces are the purest representation of harmony and unity; by simplifying subjects to their most essential elements, works of art become representations of the universe in eternal tension. In the footsteps of mondrian, lamarca utilizes the simplicity of abstraction to complement the horse’s natural beauty and as a philosophical vehicle to explore the underlying structures of the world.
Lamarca's photographs are rendered abstract through tight crops and play of light, seeking to represent only what is most essential in order to convey that which is indefinable yet universal. Each photograph examines unexpected details: the sculpted contours of a muscular neck, meticulously platted manes, and shimmering dappled coats. The large-scale photographs bring every detail to the foreground and inform the technical elements of lamarca's creative process. From choice of format, to lighting and lenses, the entire production is designed to capture details. The production of each shoot is carefully planned in order to allow for spontaneity, frequently the best photos derive from the natural, impromptu gestures of these spirited animals. Through a duality between harmonic beauty and power, the series explores the abstract idea of complementary opposites and the recognition of its coexistence as a fundamental condition of life.