CLOSE

CLOSE


CREDITS

GUP Author

GUP TEAM


Artist

Pernilla Zetterman

Artist Website

pernillazetterman.com

Dualities lie at the heart of Swedish photographer Pernilla Zetterman’s (b. 1970) series Close. The series reflects Zetterman’s own memories, both beautiful and painful, of her experiences with equestrian culture and its associated cultural codes.

In jarring close-ups, Zetterman shows the details of horses’ bodies and riding utensils. Close also includes photographs of women and girls with real and toy horses. By including photographs of both the women hugging the horses and the girls with sombre expressions having the toys between them, Zetterman provides a lens through which to question the conflicted emotions that this activity produces, both intimate and ultimately separate. In all, Close focuses on control, discipline, the exertion of power, but also devotion and the relation to memories, demonstrating how complex the equestrian world.