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Showing posts from July, 2024

The Fall of Charlotte Dujardin – animals look back at us

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The release and broadcast of the video showing Charlotte Dujardin cracking the whip at the legs of the big bay horse as he canters around the arena is hard to watch. The person recording the event laughs: a way to spend the energy that rose in her body as she witnessed something real but failed to find some words to say at the time. What has so far gone unnoticed, though, is the surprisingly polite way in which the horse objects to the whip. He continues to canter on the track but kicks out every few beats, higher and higher as time goes on. It is a kick crying out to be read. Vincent Munier's magnificent photographs and films often catch the animal looking back at him. His artistry captures the animal's gaze and frames it. His work gives us an idea that we are being looked at by a manifestation of the Other in their form. His travelling companion on the trail of the snow leopard (in the new documentary, The Velvet Queen ), Sylvain Tesson, found the right words: "we are n...