cover image The Horse: Photographic Images, 1839 to the Present

The Horse: Photographic Images, 1839 to the Present

Gerald Lang, Gerald Lanjg. ABRAMS, $45 (156pp) ISBN 978-0-8109-3407-8

This collection's emotionally taut, often violent edge suggests both the essential wildness of the horse and the human impulse to tame it. Veterinary anthropologist Lawrence's essay explores the horse's rich heritage as a symbol of status, conquest, elemental force and the unmechanized past. Lang, an art professor at Pennsylvania State University, and Marks, a photography dealer and consultant, document the horse's ancient and modern significance in 155 mostly duotone images of rodeos, polo matches and steeplechase races mixed with views of the Parthenon frieze, European statuary and a petroleum company's Pegasus logo. An otherworldly, bleak quality emerges in Cas Oorthuy's photo of a taxidermist's horse still standing amid collapsing buildings and in Richard Misrach's photo of two desiccated carcasses intertwined in the dust, while whimsy prevails in Betty Hahn's cyanotype of the Lone Ranger and Tonto on their mounts. Handsome works by Robert Capa, Hein Gorny, Alfred Stieglitz and Paul Strand round out this powerful volume. (Nov.)