'Brumby', a book of black and white images of wild horses by commercial photographer Nick Leary, has been released this month in Australia.
Australian commercial photographer Nick Leary has been fascinated by the wild horses which roam the outback so much that he has published a hard-cover coffee table book of images he has made of them. The so-called “brumbies” have been in the bush for as long as Europeans have lived in Australia, from when they first slipped the fences and farms and stables which held their ancestors in the early days of the colonies.
Today, brumby numbers have swelled to around 400,000, and for Nick Leary there is something about these sleek animals which resonates with what he feels about Australia. He says he is attracted to their enormous strength and resilience, and their untamed beauty which can endure and thrive in one of the harshest landscapes on earth.
Leary’s project has taken nine years to complete. He chartered helicopters to fly across the outback, often hanging out of doors with a camera in both hands whilst swooping amongst stampeding wild horses. The publishers say the resulting portfolio captures “something wild and fleeting which pays homage to the magical spirit of Australia”.
Nick Leary’s career as a photographer began in New York in 2000. He travelled the world shooting for fashion titles such as Vogue, and his clientele has included fashion labels Calvin Klein and Giorgio Armani, and actors and models like Cate Blanchett, Hugh Jackman and Miranda Kerr. Today he works out of his home-town Sydney with a base in Los Angeles.
In 2005 he visited Titjikala, a remote Indigenous community near Alice Springs, where he was introduced to stories of the Dreamtime by Aboriginal elders, and later exhibited his photographs from his experience at Sotheby’s in Sydney. Since then, he has exhibited works as part of his ongoing ‘Celebrate Australia’ project shown in Sydney, the Gold Coast, New York, Los Angeles and Auckland with further exhibitions planned for 2016. These exhibitions feature Leary's wild brumby photographs.
Brumby, published by Thames & Hudson, is available in major bookstores for $70.
The hard-cover coffee table book 'Brumby' features images of the wild horses of inland Australia, shot by commercial photographer Nick Leary.
