Wild horses couldn’t drag Jan Maree Vodanovich away from New Zealand’s Kaimanawa wild horses. In her new book – titled Heart and Soul – A Kaimanawa Story, the Tuakau local shares photos she has taken of these wonderful animals.
“My hope was never simply to photograph beautiful horses,” she says.
“Heart and Soul is part documentary, part visual and partly a personal journey. It follows the lives of individual horses in the wild, the annual muster that protects both the herd and the fragile environment. [It also includes] the remarkable transformation of horses such as Porthos, a wild band stallion whose journey from freedom through muster to trust and partnership became the emotional heart of the book.”
Vodanovich says she has been “horse mad” since childhood while also being interested in photography and writing – in her new book, she combines all three interests in one. “When the first musters started, there were no photographers allowed in the [Kaimanawa] Ranges,” she says.
“But, almost 20 years ago, I was the first photographer there. One of the pilots took the door off the helicopter and took me up to take photos of the horses from the air. Seeing the horses out in the wild is incredibly humbling.”
Vodanovich held an exhibition last month to promote her book. She now intends to develop a new series of sculptures of horses made from recyclable material for another exhibition titled Herd.
“Herd is going to be 50 pieces and the idea is for it to tour New Zealand and possibly overseas as well,” she adds. “A herd is never just a collection of horses, it’s a family. Every horse matters because every horse belongs.”
