Practising Photography to Create Meaning Within a Still Image

My photographs aim to depict the feeling of being trapped, and the tension and solidarity that comes with that feeling. In the left picture, the positioning of the horses could connote that they are fed up with each other (probably because they have no escape from each other) in the way that they are facing away from each other. However, it could also be interpreted as the bay horse protecting the grey horse, as the photo uses blocking to hide part of the grey horse, and the bay horse has a strong, opposing stance. The grey horse is also out of focus, whereas the bay horse is in focus, to illustrate the protectiveness of the bay horse further. In the photo on the right, the horses are both gazing over the fence, as though they want to cross the fence, although they can’t. This illustrates feelings of sadness and resentment that come from being enclosed. The barbed wire featured in the foreground gives the photograph a harsh element, as it could potentially be dangerous for the horses. However, the stance of the horses beside each other could suggest solidarity, although the distance between the horses is large and could therefore represent negative or distant feelings between the horses.The use of horses creates sympathy from my audience because they are innocent creatures, who have no say in where they live or how well they are looked after. Therefore, they can’t help being trapped in their field, and they don’t have a way out. I took the photos at eye level, to make the angle appear honest and to make the audience feel like they’re on the same level as the horses, so that they can understand them more easily. I think that horses were an interesting subject to use, as some audiences wouldn’t consider them necessarily as creatures with feelings, but I believe that is possible that they do experience the feelings that I tried to portray. Using them as a subject also helped to improve my photography skills, as they were always moving, and it was difficult to get a clear, focused shot whilst trying to position them how I wanted.