Featured Artist Esther Towler

Inspired by Britain’s rare native horse breeds and untamed landscapes, artist Esther Towler creates work rooted in observation and presence. Visit her website to see more.

 

 

I came to horses late, and through difficulty. When my daughter was poorly, I began riding in my late twenties, once a week. It was a few hours of escape from the fear and exhaustion that had settled into our lives. Horses became my peace. That quality they have of bringing you entirely into the present moment, of demanding your full attention and rewarding it with something wordless and profound, I needed that more than I can explain.

 

 

I had studied photography at university, and gradually the two things found each other. I began photographing the horses I rode and encountered, trying to hold still what I felt in their presence. That desire, to capture wildness without diminishing it, has shaped everything I’ve made since.

 

 

For six years, I travelled across Britain photographing all thirteen of Britain’s rare native horse breeds for my monograph Wild Hearts, from the windswept islands of Scotland to the ancient moorlands of England and Wales. Each journey took me to remote, extraordinary places. And somewhere along the way, something shifted. The landscapes stopped being backdrops. They became subjects in their own right.

 

 

I work across several processes, each one letting me express something different about the same subject. I start with photography—standing quietly with the horse, waiting for that moment when everything comes together. From there, I take the image further.

 

 

With Van Dyke brown printing, the warm, earthy tones feel much closer to the horse’s true nature than a standard print ever could. And with photo-encaustic, I embed the photograph into layers of molten beeswax and resin, creating something you almost want to touch. Each process teaches me something new about the horse, and about myself.

 

 

For the Elemental series, the work is made from the land rather than simply of it. I make prints directly on Saddleworth Moor, gathering moorland grasses, heather and ferns on location, washing each piece in peat bog water drawn from the moor itself. The ancient chemistry of the land interacts with light-sensitive emulsion to create unrepeatable imprints, not photographs of the moor, but the moor itself, held in blue.

 

 

This is a year-long commitment to returning across all four seasons. Last year a moorland fire left charcoal on the burned ground. I gathered it and drew with it directly onto prints. The landscape was literally making marks on itself through my hands.

 

 

What connects all of it is a preoccupation with wildness and witness. We are living through a moment of profound loss: the loss of rare breeds, wild landscapes, and habitats that have existed for centuries. To look carefully at something is already an act of care.

 

 

Horses gave me peace when I needed it most. Through my work, I hope to offer something of that to others, an invitation to pause, reconnect, and remember what wildness feels like.

 

Esther Towler invites you to follow on Instagram and Facebook.

 

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