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About......
Horses and animals have been a huge part of Alice’s life since childhood, along with her desire to spend hours drawing, painting, creating sculptures of horses and photographing wildlife.
Horses
Having grown up riding since the age of three, later studying an Hons Degree in Equine Science at Oxford Brookes University, and more recently in the last 10 years successfully training her own homebred ponies to a high level, her desire to increase her equine knowledge never tires.
Art
Alice also pursued her artistic interests intensely throughout school up to ‘A’ Level, followed by a foundation year at the Pittville Art College in Cheltneham, before expanding her knowledge further by travelling with the John Hall History of Art course to Venice, Florence & Rome.
Having discovered at Pittville that students were encouraged to express more ‘wacky’ or ‘modern’ styles, Alice realised studying art at University would be an uphill struggle as her style is very tradtional. Although art was her first choice, instead, she decided to follow her other passion and further her understanding of equine anatomy through the Equine Science degree at University, whilst pursuing art and photography in her own time.
When her Polo Photography Career took off
At 21 years old, while still at Oxford, she would spend her weekends and summer holidays drawing horse portrait commissions and producing freelance articles and photographs for the Polo Times Magazine. She started out covering the ‘Pony Power’ page for the publication, which entailed interviewing and photographing the top high goal players with their favourite polo ponies. The Polo Times soon discovered Alice had a talent for producing quality polo action images. Her photographs were used to accompany editorial pieces in the magazine, as cover shots and subsequently led to her providing polo images for national newspapers, international polo publications and being invited to cover numerous polo events including Royal days.
Although diverted from her path of a degree in Art, the knowledge gained with the Equine Science degree, paired with her riding experience and subsequently learning to play polo in exchange for helping out at the Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club, has given her a deeper understanding of both subject and sport. This is a unique benefit, combined with an artistic eye, she is able to consitently capture superb equine images.
The Focus on Fine Art Photography
Whilst following a successful career in polo action photography early on and becoming one of the leading photographers in the sport, it has only been in the last 10 years that Alice sought a deeper connection with her artistic roots to create Fine Art Photographs. Creating these images is a way to express her love of horses, therefore her own ponies have greatly influenced her early Fine Art Photography.
Alice's Best Known Images
The image of ‘Nicotina’ (the polo pony mare with a rawhide halter), was one of Alice's mares and it was the first image to be sold as a Fine Art print in 2005. It has since featured as Polo Club centre pieces in Thailand and California, in top London galleries, Ralph Lauren Home and private homes around the world. Nicotina was retired from polo and Alice subsequently bred and trained three of her offspring for polo including Havana, the mare in Alice's profile picture above. Not only is the print of 'Nicotina' an aesthetically pleasing image which people adore, it holds many personal memories.
The ability to create works of art through her photography, knowing what brings expression to an image, means that her most powerful photographs bring a sense of awe at the equine form. These distinctive prints are earning her an ever growing following. Another of her favourite pieces is the ‘Tropillas’. Probably her most famous piece to date, it was gifted to HRH Prince Harry by the Singapore Polo Club in 2017 and also a huge piece adorns Adolfo Cambiaso’s tackroom. This image was taken in Argentina, a place that holds many fond memories for Alice. She has returned almost every year since 2003 to photograph the Argentine Open.
The Tropillas image was taken at a traditional gaucho festival. These events, full of authentic gauchos (Argentine cowboys), are really something spectacular to experience and this has been captured in the image. The angle taken from above really enhances the atmospheric scene with such an array of different coloured Criollo ponies galloping through the dust during the competition. It truely is an unusual and special image that captivates you.
Creating these art pieces, Alice is moving quickly towards establishing herself as a Fine Art Photographer. More recently she is focusing on certain new Fine Art Images as Limited Edition prints, making them more appealing to buyers and collectors.
Giving back to help the animals that have influenced her work
Alice also offers a small selection of other equestrian and rural scenes and also African wildlife prints. Africa had a big impact on her, its truely a magical place. The images were taken in Limpopo, Botswana and latterly the Masai Mara, Kenya on an unforgettable riding safari led by the late Tristan Voorspuy. A larger than life character, Tristan had endless enthusiasm for conserving the local wildlife and showing his guests the wonders Africa has to offer. On an old fashioned, tented safari trip of a lifetime, Alice travelled with her cameras to take home photographs of the incredible wildlife experienced. Greatly influenced by Tristan, she was left with incredible memories and a lasting appreciation of the magnificent animals encountered. To help this worthy cause a percentage of any private sales of Limited Edition African prints will be donated to the Tristan Voorspuy Conservation Trust.
Style, Process, Cameras & Equipment
Alice’s style comes from years of experience shooting images of animals moving at speed and her attention to detail. She seeks pretty natural light combined with a scene or subject that creates an exciting or artistic composition. Then, her talent is to encompass all or part of those elements to create a dynamic image full of visual pleasure.
After a photography session Alice is always eager to download the images to see the results. Care is taken to personally select only the very best images and she then uses her skills as an artist to bring out the features and life of an image in the post processing. A raw file straight from the camera will appear quite flat in comparison to reality so this is a hugely important part of ensuring the scene that inspired the shot translates to the print.
Rainy days also often make for good polo action shots. On the occasions when crisp clear light combines with the gleaming wet coats of the horses and mud splattered whites of the players, rain quite often brings a whole new atmosphere to action shots.
Having used Canon cameras her entire career, they have been her trusted companion. Her current model is the Canon ID MIV accompanied by a 7D. The 70-200mm lens a favourite for horse portraits, however, although not the biggest sports photography lens, the most versatile piece of equipment that has been used for many of her best pieces is the canon 100-400mm - this one is never left behind when travelling abroad. It enables her to capture the close up chaos as well as mid-field action as well as portrait detail. Other photography experience includes motor racing at Brands Hatch, the Dakar Rally in Argentina, racing, hunting, jumping.
Printing
Its of vital importance to Alice that all of her images are professionally printed on top quality papers, materials or canvas. Limited Editions are printed on 315 Hahnemuhle photo rag unless Alice spcifically chose an alternative medium to enhance the image. The paper or medium used will always be specified on the Certificate of Authenticity along with the print run for limited or special editions.
Quality framing is an essential element of the process to display a Fine Art Print to its full potential. For several years Alice has worked with Ultimat Framers, a trustworthy company who are also used by many other professional photographers and artists. They are well known for their exceptional quality of work and efficient worldwide shipping.
Alice has also had work published in:
The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Financial Times, Horse & Hound, PQ International, Hurlingham, The Polo Magazine, Pololine, Country Life, Berkshire Life, Polo Players Edition, Sidelines Magazine, Jodhpur Polo Magazine, Polo & Polistas, El Federal Polo, Polo Mundial, La Dorrego, Clarin Newspaper, CAP, Chukka, New Style, PACE, Polo Barbados, St. Mortiz Polo Magazine.
Books: Playmaker Polo by Hugh Dawnay and Polo Around the World by Javier Bustinza, How To Look Cool Whilst Learning Polo by Steve Thompson, The Equine Tapestry by Lesli Kathman, Horse Colour Explored by Vera Kurskaya.
Articles to accompany her pictures arose when Polo Times asked Alice to interview top players such as Adolfo Cambiaso, Bautista Heguy (article) Lolo Castagnola (article), Ruki Baillieu (article). Alice has written for many publications including PQ International, Hurlingham, Polo Players Edition to name a few, about many subjects such as breeding articles, embryo transfer, starting young horses and women's polo which she both plays and has organised tournaments in the UK and Argentina.
One commission was to provide images and an article for Polo Times on Pablo MacDonough (see article) about his families embryo transfer farm in Argentina, La Irenita.
Prior to this Alice wrote an article on Eduardo Heguy's polo organisation in Argentina (see article) for Polo Times. Eduardo and his wife Paz had invited her to visit their incredible farm in La Pampa, providing a wonderful opportunity to photograph all the mares, foals, stallions and young playing ponies from the Heguy's top bloodlines in a magestic location. It remains one of her most memorable trips with many of the pictures illustrating this website and the added experience of a lifetime playing incredible horses from the Argentine Open.
Please visit the 'Covers' page if you wish to see all the cover shots Alice has provided to polo magazines worldwide. Click here.
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