Gareth McConnell combines psychedelia and surrealism in captivating images of Icelandic horses.
Icelandic horses are the stuff of legends. Brought to Iceland by the Vikings a thousand years ago, the hardy equines have been an integral part of Icelandic life for generations and are closely tied to the island’s rich mythology.
Iceland’s sagas are filled with references to the animals who, it was believed, pulled the sun across the sky each day. To this day, Icelandic horses are such revered members of the population that they each have their own social security number.
London-based photographer Gareth McConnell has often leaned towards nature and the surreal in his work. For this series, titled simply The Horses, he wanted to make us look at these symbolic creatures differently.
He used lights and gels to produce psychedelic flashes of color and swirling lines that are as alluring and unrestrained as the animals themselves.
Reflecting on the series, which was shot in Iceland’s Suðurland region in 2022 when the war in Ukraine was escalating and the climate crisis dominated the news, McConnell says: “I felt it was such a powerful metaphor for what is happening in the world with our broken bond with nature”.
However, he is keen to discourage only a “dark reading” of the photos. “The older you get… the more the dots start joining together. This felt like it was an expansion of that [earlier work] into some kind of cosmic wonderment or nature worship.”
If you love the inspiring stories we tell at Imagine5, please donate so we can keep telling them! Become a supporter today.
