JAVAN
Arabian Horse Photographers In Focus
Javan by M AR Y K IRKMAN
Mares at Jan贸w Podlaski Stud, Poland, during their morning turnout. SEP TEMBER 20 09 | 339A
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Javan not only paints, but often thinks, in the abstract. “Abstract” is not a word one would associate with the horse photography that has made his name in the Arabian community over the past 20 years; instead, it refers to his desire to figure out the essence of almost anything. He rarely rests on the surface of a subject. Where that cerebral approach originated is anyone’s guess. As a child growing up in a small town near Germany’s Black Forest, Karl Schaller (Javan, pronounced “Jay-van,” is a nickname), enjoyed an outdoor life, swimming, hiking, skiing and ice skating with friends. They were such proficient swimmers that by the time he was 12, he had been certified as a life guard; a close friend later made the German Olympic swim team. It was an active background, he notes, that has contributed to good health throughout his life, and it left him with a preference for outdoor work. At the age of 13, he immigrated to Eugene, Oregon, where he lived with his aunt. Javan’s first brush with photography, around 1975, was not auspicious. “I remember picking up the camera, and it was like I was touching something from outer space,” he says. “It had these numbers and knobs and letters, and I was completely intimidated with it; it puzzled me. I took a few pictures, and put the camera away.”
A beautiful grey mare and three young women during a calendar photo shoot.
By his mid-20s, Javan had married and set about raising children (there would be four from the union, which has since ended, as well as four from his wife’s previous marriage). It was the arrival of his first child, Francesca, that returned him to photography. “I wanted to capture and savor the moment,” he explains. “So I bought a camera 30 years ago, and from that point on, it just pursued.” A landscape designer at the time, he did photography on the side, but found it to be more than a hobby. He shot portraits and weddings, and enjoyed creating images of the outdoors. Horses did not come on the scene until early 1985, when he purchased an appendix Quarter Horse named Toby. And then, a few months later, came what he now calls a turning point. One Saturday afternoon in April, he and his family attended a weekend open house at Simpson-Bridges in Alamo, Calif. On Sunday they bought their first Arabian, a daughter of Ariston named Aristasia.
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Ibn Morafic in 1995, handled by Tom McNair. This is one of my most favorite pictures. This photo represents the incredible results when all of the pieces come together during a photo shoot.
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When possible, I enjoy taking the horses out of their element and letting them express themselves.
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U.S. National Champion Ames Charisma, owned by David and Annabella Gelbard of Brookville Arabians. This photo is an example of the importance of character and beautiful, expressive eyes.
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“In the Javan tradition, when you do something, you do it wholeheartedly, so we delved into everything,” he smiles. “We had it at a nice barn, where we could learn about the horse and how to take care of it, and we had lessons on the horse, and that’s how it started.” That first open house started another activity as well: Walking the barns, he saw his first photographs of Arabian horses, and picked up his first breed publication. Studying the Arabian—reading the magazines daily and poring over the photographs—absorbed hours of his day, and with the number of breeding farms and training centers in California in the 1980s, it was easy for him to learn more about the horses themselves.
Raymond Mazzei of Furioso Farms with *Egzotyka, one of his favorite mares from Poland.
“II kept looking at the magazines,” he recalls, “and I thought, ‘I can do this.’” He made the commitment to be an equine photographer full time—but the learning curve had just begun. ph “I think in any situation where you are a newcomer and you really don’t know a lot, a situation always presents itself where people take you under their wing and guide your way,” he says. Some California horsemen, among them trainers Larry and Sue Lewis and Jim Huddleston, patronized his work and gave him pointers. Furioso Farm’s Raymond Mazzei, well known for his specialty of breeding Polish horses, became a lifelong friend as well as mentor. Javan credits Mazzei with teaching him to look beyond just conformation and appearance in assessing the worth of a horse. “For those who know Raymond, he is all about the horse—what the face is doing, the eyes, the ears,” the photographer says. “He is so into what the Arabian is all about; he has a lifetime of knowledge, presenting and breeding horses—the kind of knowledge you don’t get by just going to horse shows. There was a lot to learn from him.” Another turning point came in February 1989, when he traveled to Scottsdale for the first time, arriving for the final two days of the show. “I didn’t know much,” he says. “I was quite in awe, but I really went for the horses—and met people and took pictures and submitted them to the magazines.” Everything was an educational experience. “In those early days, I would go to a farm to do a shoot, and very often I heard, ‘Yes, we’ll try you because we just had so-and-so in and we didn’t get anything.’ I thought, ‘Why is that?’ That was a puzzle I wanted to solve, and it was a challenge. That helped structure who I am and how I approach equine photography.” He concludes with a chuckle that clients probably said that about him as well, but the situation helped him develop his technique for capturing unforgettable images.
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JAVAN “My approach to the photography is to create an environment where every person, including the horse, becomes part of the process,” he says, and adds that the best photos result from more than just the person looking through the viewfinder or a handler presenting a horse. “Whatever the environment is, whether it is positive or negative, if any part of it is lacking, it will show—or it makes it that much more difficult to get what you’re after. “Most of my photo shoots are at training barns,” he continues. “That is good and bad; you can be sure that the horses are conditioned, trained, fed well, groomed well, and have a form of discipline. They come to a photo shoot with the intention of putting those pieces together. At someone’s home, the horse might be more relaxed, happier, more content and really itself, but can be spoiled or not as receptive because it hasn’t been educated. It’s two different worlds. And I think it’s also that those people who are sharp and ahead of the game more than others will have those two worlds come together.” Over the years came photographs of startling impact. The first shot to attract the attention of magazines was of Gene LaCroix with the 1989 Scottsdale (and later U.S. National) Champion Stallion Exceladdinn. At a time when the publications typically featured pictures of show winners with their owners and trainers posed blandly in front of stall drapes, Javan approached LaCroix in the lineup for the Parade of Champions to request a photo. The trainer was accommodating, he recalls, and the camera loved the stallion, a refined chestnut with expressive eyes. His shot caught an insightful portrait of the LaCroix/Exceladdinn combination. “It was like a mini-photo shoot,” he explains. “We were going for the same thing, but we had to get it done in seven or eight minutes. It was completely different from what anyone had done up to that point.” Over time, he became well known for character shots of horse people that reflected their lives with the horses, and for personality studies of the horses themselves. A variety of photogenic subjects testify to his abilities. In the end, Javan has found that the biggest challenge is to keep the work fresh. “Horse photography by itself can get routine,” he admits. “So much of it is set up and staged. What makes it interesting and unique is
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The great Imperial Baarez was always a pleasure to photograph.
Inquisitive mares at Michal贸w State Stud, Poland, enjoying their daily routine. SEP TEMBER 20 09 | 345A
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when you have the great ones—the ones that are stars and are truly photogenic. Like, for instance”—he throws out names, cautioning again it is an incomplete list—“*Padron, Showkayce, Allionce, Hey Hallelujah, ML Mostly Padron, Jullyen El Jamaal, Bey Shah … Millennium LOA … my own horse, Mankind. What has helped me in my business is that I treat them all as individuals and try to cultivate who they are. There is an old English quote that is very appropriate; it says, ‘He is but a horse like a king; he comes but once every hundred years.’” A hard truth for him is that photographs of horses are meant to have commercial value, and due to the staging necessary for those shots, they do not always reflect who each horse really is as an individual. Javan’s involvement in Arabian horses has not been limited to photography; his understanding of the breed and his connection with the horses themselves has been enhanced by his own breeding program. His current success, he reports, began in 1995 with the purchase of the mare Markessa Rose (Mark Of Fame x Pepper Rose, by *Aladdinn). “We loved her and used her as a foundation for many years,” he says. In 1997, Markessa Rose competed at the U.S. Nationals in futurity fillies, and came home with a top ten award; her later career in open competition was especially significant for Javan because it was an early connection with her handler, Ted Carson, who remains a valued friend today. The Schallers were prescient in their choice of stallions for Markessa Rose: She was among the first bred to Versace, and in 2000, delivered the first foal by Jullyen El Jamaal, Manray. Another of his favorites from the mare is the stallion Mankind, a Jullyen El Jamaal son who was exported to Saudi Arabia in 2007. Even before Markessa Rose’s national debut, however, Javan had acquired what would be his most notable horse to date. He was involved in promotion for Bob and Pat Radmacher’s stallion Desert Heat VF when Pat showed him a picture of a colt they had at home. Several trainers had already turned the colt down, he says, but something about the youngster spoke to him; he and the Radmachers struck a deal, and in due course, the son of Bucharest V and Barbary Rose was dropped off at his home. “He wasn’t registered, he had no name, he wasn’t halter broken—he had nothing,” Javan recalls. “But when he came out of the van, he looked at me—and it was one of
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those once-in-a-lifetime feelings, when you know you’re looking at something that is really different and great.” The colt was Millennium LOA, who in 2001 would be named U.S. National Champion Stallion, and he illustrates the intuitive approach that balances Javan’s practical understanding of what it takes to win in the show ring. “I have to admit I believed in him from the very first minute I saw him,” he says. “My mind was racing pretty amazingly. For me, if I like something, I like it and believe in it, and I’ll make it into something. He had good conformation; that is what you obviously want no matter what, and I could see that in the picture, but it was more than that. I loved the shape of his neck, the way it sat on top of his shoulder, and he had amazing eyes. “Some of these horses stand on their own merits,” he continues. “Yes, everyone likes a lot of horses and you give them the respect they deserve, but then there are others who stand out—and thank God it is that way. It separates those that are average and normal from those that are great. If we didn’t have that comparison, we wouldn’t look for those moments and strive for those periods in our lives. That was Millennium; I just knew and he stood out.” For more than a year, Millennium LOA simply grew up at the farm. But Javan had a growing certainty that the colt, with the proper conditioning, was good enough to win Junior Colts at Scottsdale. Trainer Steve Heathcott, who loved Millennium LOA, was equally sure, and pressing for a chance to show the 2-year-old. The stars aligned for Scottsdale of 1999—Millennium LOA did become Scottsdale Junior Champion Colt, showing with Heathcott. By then, however, he had been sold to Live Oak Arabians, for whom he became a triple crown champion stallion.
FACING PAGE: Top Left: The late Patrick Swayze relaxing on his ranch with one of his favorite horses, the stallion Tammen. I truly enjoyed spending time with Patrick and his wife, Lisa. Top Right: A young Polish girl expressing her excitement during the Polish Nationals. Middle Right: A Polish groom with his horse. Bottom Left: A picture from my trip to Jordan in 2004. Bottom Right: Tranquil mares at the end of the day in Poland.
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Above and facing page: Examples of Javan’s oils on canvas, which exemplify dramatic colors and expressive textures. In breeding horses, as in photography or art or any other experience, Javan seeks to identify the fundamental truths and learn lessons that apply to more than just the subject at hand. He has learned a lot in the horse industry. “I think every day is very important,” he says. “It’s a hard lesson to learn to truly take the good with the bad and not have either one impose too much on you, to really take things the way they are. The horse business, if you will allow it to, will teach you that. God knows, there are plenty of ups and downs at many levels. It is very similar to Hollywood, there is a lot of smoke and mirrors, and then there is reality. At times it parallels the drama of a Shakespearean play with all of its characters, myths and fantasies.” In a business which many people refer to regularly as a passion, he counsels restraint. “What I’ve learned for myself, personally, is that horse breeding is about only that: horse breeding. I believe it is not about money or winning, because the three worlds (horses, money and winning) do not necessarily mesh together. They never have and they never will; they’re like water and oil. If that is what you’re looking for, you could be in the wrong endeavor.” On the other hand, he adds, “There really aren’t any risks in the horse business if you can accept that they are just horses.” He recalls a remark attributed to Sheila Varian years ago that expresses much of his philosophy. “She said, ‘I came to this horse show with horses. Whether they win or lose, I leave with the same ones.’ I think that’s a good thing to live by. 348A | AR ABIAN HORSE TIMES
“Once you have done your best to breed fine horses, you must then prioritize their inherent worth,” Javan observes. “We are their stewards. We’ve changed their environment; they are dependent upon us; so, we owe it to them to be their stewards, to supervise them. “People can be brilliant and simple at the same time,” he observes. “The stories make it easier for us to comprehend what is so obvious.” His view of the Arabian horse business seeks to integrate the nuances of a complicated industry. “I really believe the community at large can accomplish a great deal,” he says. “The horse business needs to reinvent itself at both the national and international level, if possible; it is not all about being market-driven. I think you use great horses in breeding, but they shouldn’t define an entire breed. The Arabian horse is so multi-layered.” Again, someone else’s comment expresses his own thoughts. “It was Michael Byatt at Louisville, who stated, when a groom was bringing a horse up for pictures and the handler was a bit abrupt with the horse, ‘Why don’t you stop picking at him and let him maintain his own integrity?’ That is a philosophy that you can live by. It all filters out in the end product: whether that horse has a good life, a poor life or a great life, just like people.” Abruptly, he changes pace, and comments that he’s sounding way too serious. ‘Serious’ is not the whole Javan story; in fact, one key to getting through the day is to lean heavily on humor. One can’t take anything
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This work represents Javan’s photographic multi-media artwork. It combines original black and white photos with paints and dies, creating thoughtful and provocative moods. Samples range from 8 x 10 to 30 x 40. Javan’s collection includes color productions as well.
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An American Bald Eagle—the “right place at the right time.” Sometimes the decisive moment is when you least expect it. My motto is: “Always be prepared.”
A Jordanian soldier caught in a reflective mood.
One of my favorite photos of Shawn … I enjoy taking intimate portraits in natural settings, where the consideration of light sets the mood.
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too seriously, he says. He laughs and teases, “Come on, now. You haven’t even asked me who my favorite horse is! What writer doesn’t ask who a person’s favorite horse is?” For the record, it is the stallion Ecaho. The years have seen many changes in Javan’s life, not the least of which has been his ever-widening exploration of art. For the last decade, he has dabbled in multimedia projects, some of which involve horse photography, and most of which are meant to be “provocative, striking, thoughtful and intriguing.” For the past four years, he has tried his hand at oil painting. No horses there, he says—his style is abstract, often portraying flowers. Two clients in the equine industry, Annabella Gelbard and Carol Steppe, already have purchased his paintings. His personal life has seen changes as well. He has for four years shared his life with horsewoman Shawn Medica.
The pair enjoys their mutual affinity for Arabian horses (“She is a beautiful rider,” he notes), along with an array of other interests, including travel and art (in fact, Shawn was the motivating factor in his taking up oil painting). His children are grown and living their own lives, but remain close, enabling Javan to spend time with his wonderful grandchildren. For him, it is a comfortable life. “I think everything presents itself the way it does and you learn to f low with it,” he says. “You can’t really fight change. I’ve learned to be f lexible and open-minded and see things new every day—or at least allow myself the opportunity to do that.” For all his observation and thought, he finds that life, like his photography business, is founded on one basic rule: “At the end of the day, it’s your credibility that matters.” ■
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