Tony Bonanno's “White Horses of the
Camargue”
Next Workshop May 10-15, 2020, Saintes Maries de la Mer, France
Next Workshop May 10-15, 2020, Saintes Maries de la Mer, France
I've photographed horses for many
years, both for my own fine art portfolio and for clients. I've
photographed quarter horses on western ranches, grand prix jumpers,
rodeo horses, and wild roaming Spanish Mustangs. Equine photography
has been one of my specialties for many years.
The White Horses of the Camargue? To
be honest, I had never heard of them. It all began in 2014. I was
leading a photo program in Cuba and one of the participants was
photojournalist Jodie Willard from Santa Barbara, California. Jodie
was an experienced equine photographer and she invited me to co-lead
a photo workshop with her in the Camargue in the Spring of 2015. She
described the beautiful White Horses and the “Gardian” culture
(the “keepers” of the horses). Jodie and I did four workshops
together. That is how my love affair with the Camargue started.
The Camargue Horse is an ancient breed,
estimated to be 12,000 to 14,000 years old. Over the centuries,
these horses adapted to the harsh environment of the Camargue
wetlands and marshes of southern France. They are hardy, disease
resistant, agile, and sure footed. When running through the waters
of the Rhone Delta they appear to have a synergy that is almost
other-worldly. They are wonderful animals to watch and study.. and
to photograph. Today, most of the horses are semi-feral and live on
large expanses of open lands (or manades) managed by the Gardians.
Most have never been ridden or broken. The Gardian and their
“herders” are a traditional culture that raise the black Camargue
cattle and Camargue bulls that are used in the bull rings of Southern
France. They are the “keepers” of the Camargue Horse. The
Gardian is responsible for manging the semi-feral herds and ensuring
the purity of the breed and the protection of the herds. The
Camargue Horse is the traditional mount of the Gardian and the
herders. The Gardians and herders are very passionate about their
horses. They've been working with these horses for generations and
they are proud of their lifestye, their culture, and their horses.
It is a love affair. As one Gardian told me, they and the horse are
one. And a challenge for myself and my workshop participants is to
capture this love affair in camera.
Photographing the horses in their
aquatic environment, especially when galloping with the Gardians and
the herders require a certain technique for best results. Cameras
with good focus tracking and high resolution sensors are really
helpful. It is useless to try to create a final compostion in the
viewfinder when the horses are running in the water. The rule of
thumb is to shoot “wide” and create the final compostion in post.
Aside from the equipment challenges, there is the environment
itself. You are in swamps, marshes, sandy beaches, muck, mud, and
often in the water. Mosquitoes can be plentiful, so working “covered
up” with netting, waders, etc. is often the dress of the day. The
Camargue workshop that I conduct is not for “hot house flowers”.
One of the challenges (and rewards) is working “in the horse's
environment”.. in the same terrain that they reside in. Not an
arena or stable or nice grassy field, but in the marshes, ponds,
brackish waters, and wetlands, etc. that they evolved in and still
live in. However, the terrain is not difficult and everyone works at their own pace. An interesting side note... for a Camargue Horse to be
considered a “pure breed”, they have to be “born in the wild.”
And they are born dark. The Camargue Horse doesn't turn white until
they are grown and between 4-7 years old. Most of the Gardians'
herds are part of free roaming manades (ranch herds). A number of animals
are used for their own mounts and also for the increasing tourism
business, but the rules still apply.. most are never ridden, most are
still semi-feral, and they are born in the wild.
I am often asked by friends and
colleagues if they can just go to the Camargue and photograph these
wonderful animals in the same settings that they see in my images.
Unfortunately, the answer is generally “no”. Since the horses
are semi-feral or being used by the Gardians to manage their herds of
cattle, getting access is complicated. All these horses are on
private lands. If you go to the region, you will probably see horses
from the roadside and possibly get some good photographs. You can
also go out on a trail ride from with a herder/guide along with other
tourists. If you want a more authentic experience, you will have to
contact a local Gardian or herder and see what they can offer you as
far as getting you “out” with the horses. Often this will
require several “herders” to get the horses to your camera.. and
it gets expensive. On a positive note, you will be helping the local
economy. The other option is to participate in a workshop. The
costs of the workshop usually will cover the Gardians, herders,
locations, etc. And it will be an adventure of a lifetime.
I keep going back to the Camargue with
my cameras with two goals in mind. I want to tell the story of the
Gardians' traditional culture (while it still exists) and their
beautiful white horses. And I want to share the story with my
colleagues and other photographers through my “workshops”.
The 2020 workshop is scheduled for May 10-15th in Saintes Maries de la Mer, France.
The 2020 workshop is scheduled for May 10-15th in Saintes Maries de la Mer, France.
I've been working on a book, “The
White Horses of the Camargue,” about the Gardian culture and the
Camargue Horses. If all goes as planned, the book will be published
by Art Guild Press, Santa Fe, NM, in the first half of 2020.
Tony Bonanno
Santa Fe, New Mexico
August 26, 2019
PS – Gardian is the French word for
the “keeper” of the herds in southern France. It is not spelled
Guardian. :-)
My fine art Camargue prints are on
display at Ernesto Mayans Gallery, 601 Canyon Rd, Santa Fe, New
Mexico, and at Sterling Fine Art Gallery, 306 N. Bullard St., Silver
City, New Mexico.
www.camarguehorses.com
www.camarguehorses.com
Email tony@bonannophoto.com for more information about the Camargue workshops...
TECHNICAL FOOTNOTES and some other details ....
Thanks to the higher resolution equipment that is available today, there is much more room for creative cropping and making larger prints. When I work in the Camargue with the fast moving horses, etc. my main camera currently is a Nikon D850 with it's 46 megapixel full frame sensor. The high resolution sensor gives me a fair amount of latitude to capture the action by shooting wide and then finalizing the composition in post. My favorite lens to capture the running action with the horses is the 70-200 f/2.8. It is fast, has just the right focal length range to nail most of the activity, and is not overly cumbersome. Wider focal length lenses (24-70, etc) are very useful for the more static activity and when photographing the Gardians and herders. For action shots, a shutter speed of 1/1000 or higher is usually preferred and an aperture of f/8 or f/11, assuming you want the images to be sharp, etc. Sometimes, in the workshop, we will experiment with shallow depth of fields, blurring, and panning.
When planning a trip to the Camargue, we almost always fly into Marseilles which is about a 2 hour drive from our base in Saint Maries de la Mer. I like to encourage the workshop participants to meet me in Arles, France a day or two before the workshop. Arles is a walled city that was once the provincial captital of ancient Rome and is known for it's history, culture, art (Van Gogh), and architecture. Arles is on the way to Saintes Maries de la Mer. Meeting there a couple of days before the workshop provides an opportunity to explore much of the region's rich culture and history, engage in some great street photography, and helps overcome the effects of jet lag prior to starting our workshop.
Some good information about the history of the Camargue Horse can be found here, "Camargue Horse History".
TECHNICAL FOOTNOTES and some other details ....
Thanks to the higher resolution equipment that is available today, there is much more room for creative cropping and making larger prints. When I work in the Camargue with the fast moving horses, etc. my main camera currently is a Nikon D850 with it's 46 megapixel full frame sensor. The high resolution sensor gives me a fair amount of latitude to capture the action by shooting wide and then finalizing the composition in post. My favorite lens to capture the running action with the horses is the 70-200 f/2.8. It is fast, has just the right focal length range to nail most of the activity, and is not overly cumbersome. Wider focal length lenses (24-70, etc) are very useful for the more static activity and when photographing the Gardians and herders. For action shots, a shutter speed of 1/1000 or higher is usually preferred and an aperture of f/8 or f/11, assuming you want the images to be sharp, etc. Sometimes, in the workshop, we will experiment with shallow depth of fields, blurring, and panning.
When I'm in the streets of Saintes
Maries de la Mer, Arles, or another French village, I'm often
carrying either my Leica M10 or, more recently, the Nikon mirrorless
Z7. Both these cameras are ideal IMO for the street. The Leica of
course is a throwback to my early days and requires a bit more
effort, but I enjoy it.
I put a lot of faith in post
processing. Not to fix mistakes, but to strengthen composition. As
I tell my students and workshop participants, the composition is not
finished until you finish the post processing. I ask my students to
shoot RAW files to ensure they have as much data as possible. I work
almost exclusively in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. I generally
don't use plug-ins and add on apps. Everything I need is pretty much
built into LR and PS. It's just a question of mastering the
“sliders” to achieve the results you're looking for. I often
find that an image is stronger in B&W than color, especially if
there are elements that really emphasize composition (textures,
patterns, strong contrast, etc). It is really important for me to
preserve the luminance and black points in a B&W image.
Regardless of what I do in post, it is very important not to “over
process”. Over use of high dynamic range (HDR) processing and
over-processing skies and clouds seem to be very common in the
digital world. I try to discourage my students from going down that
road.
I do tone my B&W files in
Lightroom, ever so slightly, to add depth and richness to the file.
My toning workflow is very simple, but I only share it with my
students :-).
When planning a trip to the Camargue, we almost always fly into Marseilles which is about a 2 hour drive from our base in Saint Maries de la Mer. I like to encourage the workshop participants to meet me in Arles, France a day or two before the workshop. Arles is a walled city that was once the provincial captital of ancient Rome and is known for it's history, culture, art (Van Gogh), and architecture. Arles is on the way to Saintes Maries de la Mer. Meeting there a couple of days before the workshop provides an opportunity to explore much of the region's rich culture and history, engage in some great street photography, and helps overcome the effects of jet lag prior to starting our workshop.
Some good information about the history of the Camargue Horse can be found here, "Camargue Horse History".
