Equine Photography Workshop in Jackson Hole with Tony Stromberg

I'm hoping to participate in this AMAZING workshop next summer, and pursue my dream of equine photography. However, it's a little expensive. If you can spare any money, I'd love your help!

• Tony Stromberg: http://tonystromberg.com/workshops/equine-photography-in-wyoming
• DONATE: http://www.gofundme.com/5hd4dc

"Look Between the Ears"

Look Between the Ears by Lauren Thompson | Make Your Own Book

Final Artist Statement

“Look Between the Ears” is a body of work based off of my passion for horses. I’ve always loved horses, and photography is a beautiful and powerful medium through which I portray them. I enjoy everything about horses: their movement, personalities and intelligence, and their strength, grace, and beauty. I found similar purpose with Tony Stromberg’s and Irene Suchocki’s photographic work. They both captured photographs of horses still and in motion, portraying all the attributes that I hope to portray someday in my art.

With these images I sought to find something deeper within myself that is why I constantly desire to photograph horses. I sought to capture a feeling that I experience when I ride: a sense of power and freedom, the wind blowing through my hair as we move and conquer the world together.

One image in particular, “Flight”, captured these feelings, where you can truly see the motion and activity through his flying and swirling mane, which is just what I had aimed to capture. I believe that this image especially translates that feeling of freedom that may otherwise be inaccessible to people who do not or cannot ride horses.

I hope that with this body of work, viewers may experience the world anew from horseback, and see and feel what I do, what the horse does. Perhaps, then, a narrative can be created from the images within these pages.

Lauren Thompson

November 2013

Artist Statement I Like

Tony Stromberg
http://tonystromberg.com/

After successfully spending over 20 years as a high-end advertising photographer in San Francisco, I found myself disenchanted, burned out, and ultimately receiving no nourishment from the work I was doing.  On the outside, I had everything anyone would want, but my inner landscape was barren and I began “searching” for my lost spirit.

When horses came into my life in the mid-1990’s, I realized that I had found my teachers, and the connection that I have developed with horses has helped steer my life in a completely different direction. Horses have taught me so much in the time that I have spent with them. They have taught me about the power of authenticity, honestly, and integrity, and they have taught mew the true meaning of leadership and relationship. They have also taught me about living in collaboration and community, rather than the model that our society embodies, which is about competition and “getting ahead of the rest”.

I feel my work is an homage to the equine spirit, and to the archetypal role they play in our lives. This is why I always photograph them without riders, saddles, bits, bridles or any other device that would interfere with their pure essence.

After publishing my first 2 books “Spirit Horses” and “The Forgotten Horses”, I am working on a new book which is my latest collection of photography, but will also include text about the role horses play for us as teachers and healers, and the profound lessons they provide for us… if we are willing to listen.

Old and New

'Waiting', Spring 2011

This photo was part of a project for Introduction to Photography titled "Secret Object". This black sphere was my object. I more or less just tried to find interesting places to put this fairly ordinary sphere. This was taken outside of Morgan in the winter. The contrast of the black and the white snow is exciting for me, and I enjoyed the amount of detail I could get in the snow, and the action of the falling snow in the background.

"Fierce Grace" by Tony Stromberg

I'm strongly interested in domestic and wildlife photography. I am a hardcore animal lover, and capturing the life, beauty, animation of animals is something I strive toward. This photo immediately caught my attention. I love horses, and this profile is gorgeous. It captures the movement of the horse's mane in the wind, out in the field, or on the prairie. This is beautiful to me - elegance and life even in the horse's still posture.