The Richmond News April 5. 2013 A5
News
Focusing on a passion
SUBMITTED PHOTO
BY PHILIP RAPHAEL
Steveston’s Kerri-Jo Stewart trained her lens on the relationship between horses and the people of Iran and Turkmenistan that has lasted centuries.
Special to the News
The young boy’s lips are pursed, his teeth bared with determination. A cane for a jockey’s whip is carried gently in his left hand as he rides high in the saddle. His horse clamps down on its leather bit while the crowd of helmeted and goggled riders astride their steeds close in on the leader down the stretch. The frenzied action from the group raises clouds of dust from the makeshift, mud racetrack as behind them the setting sun casts streams of yellow and orange hues. It’s another day at the races in Iran — a country with a long history connected with equine mastery — one that Richmond photographer Kerri-Jo Stewart took a picture of during a recent visit. The composition expertly captures the drama and tension of the race, a moment digitally etched in time. In short, it’s visually stunning. Yet it’s not judged to be her best. In fact, for her work in Iran and nearby Turkmenistan, the self-taught photographer recently won the honour of photographer of the year, plus a pair of awards in the 2013 Professional Photographers of Canada competition. “I was pretty surprised,” admitted Stewart who, after moving to Steveston from her farm in Maple Ridge about 18 months ago, decided to seriously pick up a
really been used in the camera after just dabbling with photograwest, and because the area is isolated, they phy previously. haven’t been developed into the “I needed to get a job,” said modern, western horse like we Stewart who has a Masters in see now,” Stewart explained. equine physiology. “So, I started “They’re like the horses you see doing photography, had some on the cave drawings. They have horse photos, and ended up writa really high head set. They’re ing a book on equine photogravery dry looking. Genghis Khan phy and what I’d learned so far.” Scan this page came over and bought some. Stewart had been working for a photo Alexander The Great also had on the farm with dairy goats gallery them.” and was breeding Akhal-Teke But when her book on phohorses, an ancient line from tographing horses, Shooting Gold, was Turkmenistan and northern Iran. finished, Stewart’s adventure was just about “It’s a really old breed. They haven’t
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to begin. And it started with a strange email she was all too ready to banish to her spam folder. “I thought it was spam, actually, because it said I had an invitation to come to Turkmenistan,” Stewart said. “It had the president’s name on it, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, so when it started off an invitation from the president, I deleted it. But I went back into my spam folder to check on it and realized it was real.” The invite was from the country’s horsebreeding department called the Turkmen Atlary. Officials from Turkmenistan, which was a republic of the Soviet Union in Central Asia until 1991, had seen Stewart’s book online and were asking her to visit their country to photograph the annual Day of the Horse celebrations, as well as their 20th anniversary of independence. Intrigued with the offer, she packed her bags and made for Turkmenistan where she shot enough photos for another three books — two for the Day of the Horse — and one on the independence festivities. From Turkmenistan, a group in Iran invited her to take pictures of horses in remote areas of that country where she ended up spending two months. “Where I visited in northern Iran would be the equivalent of a community near the Arctic — like some little Inuit village. They didn’t have running water or electricity.”
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