Horse Head

An exceptional book on the award-winning photo series by ‘Photographer of the Year’ Frederik Buyckx

In his work, photographer Frederik Buyckx (b. 1984) explores remote areas where nature can be overwhelmingly beautiful and unpredictably harsh. In doing so, he systematically sounds out the ultimate boundaries of the elements. Encounters with unique people are often the occasion for a photo series. In his award-winning series Horse Head, he documents in an inimitable way – and on horseback himself – the isolated lifestyle of semi-nomadic shepherds in Kyrgyzstan.

With an essay by photographer and author Lottie Davies.

Frederik Buyckx is the Sony Photographer of the Year and the winner of the Lima Photo Prize, and a finalist of the World Press Photo Award and the ZEISS Photography Award.

The exhibition Horse Head ran from 12 October 2019 to 5 January 2020 in the Mechelen cultural centre, Belgium.

'For this intense project, Frederik Buyckx built a silent bond with the shepherd community in Kyrgyzstan, who took him on its wanderings.In Frederik’s photographs, you can almost feel the wind cut through your skin as you journey by horse through the snow-covered landscape. Everything makes you feel that he is not only there to take pictures, but that he has a genuine sense of empathy.'

– Magnum photographer Bieke Depoorter

'The work of Buyckx returns to the essence of looking at photography. A landscape is often overlooked but it is central to our existence.'

— Zelda Cheatle, chair of judges at the Sony World Photography Awards

'What Frederik Buyckx gives us is a taste of unbridled nature where senses are heightened and impending disaster hovers at the edges of beauty. He shows that by reaching outside of one’s comfort zone and running towards rather than from the anxiety created by nature’s tempestuousness, it is possible to experience the profound beauty of our world’s wildest places.’

— Life Framer