The Infinite Bond Between a Small Finnish Community and their Horses
10 December 2018 - Written by PhMuseum
Tapping into her passion for horses, Kati Leinonen – the winner of a 2018 Women Photographers Grant Vogue Italia Prize – reveals the hidden realities and mundane chores of everyday life in a Scandinavian stable.
As a child I spent all my free time with horses at the local stables of Äimärautio. The Shetland ponies, Tarzan and Bölle, taught me how to be with horses, and turned me into a "horseperson" for good. Recently, I saw a picture of all the riding school ponies with their grooms, taken 35 years ago. I was immediately able to name every pony but none of the girls alongside them.
Horses continue to hold the same importance for me. Mundane chores and activities with horses are meaningful. When one is with horses, there occurs something in one’s brain and body that cannot be explained or expressed with words, something that would not happen without them.
This series presents everyday encounters in and around the stables. These are encounters often hidden from the public outside of racing and behind the scenes of competition days. They carry the atmosphere of the stables and project the way of life around horses.
Words and Pictures by Kati Leinonen.
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Kati Leinonen (1974) is a Finnish artist working with various forms of photography and video. She has graduated in photography (BA) from the London College of Printing and in Audiovisual Media Culture (MA) from the University of Lapland, where she is currently working on her art-based doctoral thesis. Find her on PHmuseum and Instagram.
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This feature is part of Story of the Week, a selection of relevant projects from our community handpicked by the PHmuseum curators.