Mina Lawton
Real/Unreal
I have always had an interest in photographing equines and often will spend half an hour or more at the local stud farm taking numerous photos of the foals and their mothers, trying to get the 'perfect' picture. However I found that it is much quicker and I get just as much joy from capturing pictures of miniature resin models of horses set out in different scenes and locations. They do not move and so make the whole process a lot easier.
I first started taking photos of model horses back in 2014 as a fun thing to do in my spare time. However when I started publishing on a blog in 2015 I began to take my photos more seriously and started to situate the models in the real world.
The concept of using the models in outdoor locations with props that are found naturally such as grass, walls, snow and ice, or buildings in the background, really interests me as it provides a new perspective on the world. The mixture of real and unreal materials set up in such a way as to portray a 'real' scene.
In my photographs I locate and capture the models in situations that mimic situations one might see occurring with their full scale, living, counterparts i.e. grazing in a field, being ridden through the waves or posing for professional equine photographers.