Equus

by tim-flach

“From the outset I felt quite strongly that I wanted to celebrate the horse in its own right.”                                         —Tim Flach, photographer

 

No animal has captured the human imagination quite like the horse, depicted in media from cave drawings thousands of years ago through countless renderings in paint, clay, ink, even film. Award-winning photographer Tim Flach’s quest to document the horse has resulted in Equus, an intensely moving look at an animal—as solitary subject and en masse, from the air and from underwater—whose history is so powerfully linked to our own.

 

From exquisite Arabians in the Royal Yards of the United Arab Emirates to purebred Icelandic horses in their glacial habitat; from the soulful gaze of a single horse’s lash-lined eye to the thundering majesty of thousands of Mustangs racing across the plains of Utah, Equus provides an amazing and unique insight into the physical dynamics and spirit of the horse.

Genres: Photography, Horses, Animals, Nonfiction

300 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Dayna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a truly beautiful book. I am not even all that keen on horses and the like but this book was just amazing! I found this while looking into the dog photography Tim Flach has done. While waiting for the book Dog to arrive at our library we got this one. Tim Flach has a wonderful eye for his subject and did a great job capturing some really unique images. Some of which almost look unreal. The embryonic photos and the war apparatus pics were really neat to see. Loved the details at the back of the book. Learned a thing or two. This would make a great gift for a photography or horse enthusiast.

[Zoann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horse porn. :-)

But the photographer has made abstract art out of the horse--in some cases it was hard to recognize what I was seeing. Also some incredible shots of horse fetuses, including the hoof capsule that protects the mother from being injured by the foal's hooves. I also liked the beautiful pre-historic bone art.

Very cool and informative.

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely incredible. This book is stunning in every way.

[Debra Schoenberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the unique perspectives.

[Linda Shantz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sigh!!!!

[Kathleen Messmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a stunning, masterful piece of work. Buy it. Keep it on your coffee table to gaze at as often as you can. Beautiful.

[Anna Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is truly a beautiful book! It’s a bit of a love letter to horses (and horse relatives), I think. Somehow each page and picture was more stunning and unique and intriguing than the last. The pictures alone are worthy of admiration, but I particularly appreciated the captions and insights into what each picture is capturing found in the information section in the back of the book. I would admire the picture, read the caption (sometimes with an accompanying Google search to learn more) and go back to admiring the picture with more insight into what I’m admiring. The details of this book are also precious. For example, written within the captions is the name of each individual horse featured in the photograph and their names are listed again in the acknowledgments alongside their owners. I just thought that was a sweet touch. I came expecting to fangirl over pretty horses (which I totally did), but I also learned so much about different breeds of horses, horse history, horse relatives past and present (etc), way more than I had anticipated. For example, there is only one remaining breed of truly wild horses, which I didn’t know, but now I do. There is also a whole segment that Flach refers to as the “breeding section,” with pictures of horse embryos at different stages and a foal right after being born. That’s not something I expected to be included in such a book, but it really works and is neat to see. The history of the equus genus is also interwoven in the pictures and captions, as is the impact that humans have had on horses and, in return, the impact that horses have had on us (but without taking the spotlight away from the horses). Flach is really reflective in the introduction, and the few little written pieces within, about the stories the pictures tell and the questions he believes they ask of the admirer. There is definitely depth to the book. (And did I mention there are pretty horses?!)

[robyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is GORgeous.

It's really a series of glamor shots. Extreme close-ups of the place where the neck meets the shoulder, in a tight bend, all muscle and bone under the sheen of the beautiful coat. The spots on an apaloosa's coat. The stripes on a zebra (the Equus family includes not just horses, but also donkeys and zebras). Shots in situ, of mustangs in the desert, horses in the snow.

But he also includes a series of shots of horse embryos at different stages - ghostly, perfect. Then the horse hybrids (mule, zonkey, zorse (silly names)). Then, a series of head shots of horses wearing various accessories, like a chloroform bag, riot gear, gas mask), a page of eyes, several pages of different ways of recording horses, such as photo-finish, thermographic and, in a nod to our forebears, cave art.

There are some really unusual pictures in here. They're just as beautiful as the ones that wow with scenery and the physical perfection of the subject.

I really like this book. Even its size contributes to its overall effect; it measures 8.5 x 6.5, so it's nice to hold.

[Andrew Ives · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very large format, heavy, glossy, 'coffee table' book featuring photographs of all sorts of horses, donkeys, mules and zebras is certainly very appealing to the eye. Some of the photographs here are quite fabulous, a few are rather arty and abstract, more are semi-documentary. There is a lot of whitespace, and not really much to read until you reach the end where there are details for each photo. The introduction is well-written and all the printing, layout and proofreading is totally impeccable. I enjoyed this book very much. I just wish it had a little more information and text in it somewhere. 4.25/5

[Gab Hausi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I will ever love a book more than I love 'Equus'.

[Heather Woodward · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book my husband and I read together â¤ï¸

[Heather Lefevers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book my husband and I read together â¤ï¸