Location: Bashang, Inner Mongolia
Medium: Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Ultra Smooth 305g
Framing: Aluminum alloy frame
Edition: 3/15
"The noblest conquest ever made by man is that of this proud and spirited animal - the horse," wrote the French writer Buffon. In The Wilderness Is Not Empty, the black horse on the left stands with frost on its mane, its gaze calm, as if quietly meeting the camera. The chestnut horse in the center bends toward its companion's foreleg, seemingly attempting in vain to bite open the cold shackle. In the foreground, another horse's blue eye is like ice, while the icicles on its mane glimmer faintly in the dim light.
This is a wilderness that ought to belong to freedom. Yet the clear shackle in the image tightens the vastness and freedom in an instant, like a silent sigh. Though they stand in the open wild, their spirits seem bound by an invisible restraint. The pure white of the snowfield fixes the horse's wildness in place, and at the same time makes its silent defiance even more visible. This work is selected from the photobook Snowfield Horses.
Li Gang is a council member of the China Artistic Photography Society and President of the Photographers Branch of the China Horse Industry Association. In 2009, he received the 8th China Photography Golden Image Award. His photobooks Xiang yu Chouxiang and A Group of Horses, Full of Stars were awarded China's "Most Beautiful Book" in 2020 and 2022 respectively. He has held solo exhibitions at institutions including the National Art Museum of China, the China National Academy of Arts, and the China Photography Exhibition Hall, and has participated many times in art festivals and exhibitions in China and abroad. He also held the joint exhibitions Horse and Horse and Mountain and Horse respectively with Yann Arthus-Bertrand, member of the French Academy of Arts, and Japanese photographer Kubota Hiroji. His published books include Appointment with Landscape, Snowfield . Horses, Reincarnation, Xiang yu Chouxiang, A Group of Horses, Full of Stars, and the French-language edition PARADISBLANC published by GEO France. His works are collected by the National Art Museum of China, the French agency AKG Images, and private collectors.