In the mountains of Juta Valley, Georgia, horses appear and disappear into the landscape. Sometimes they stand quietly against the vastness of the mountains; at other times, the view moves close, lingering on a mane, a sleeping body, or the texture of a coat. At this distance, the distinction between animal and landscape begins to dissolve. Hair becomes grass, the curve of a body echoes the slope of a mountain, and the horse seems to carry its surroundings on its skin.
Photographed on black-and-white film, the series moves between the intimacy of these encounters and the quiet openness of the valley. There is something dreamlike in the horses’ presence, as if they belong to a time outside the human world, following rhythms that need no explanation. Rather than trying to capture the landscape as a distant spectacle, Saman Oskouei looks at it through these animals, finding a world of textures, gestures, and fleeting forms. The photographs invite us to stay with these moments, where the familiar becomes strange and the boundary between a living body and the natural world grows uncertain.

In the mountains of Juta Valley, Georgia, horses appear and disappear into the landscape. Sometimes they stand quietly against the vastness of the mountains; at other times, the view moves close, lingering on a mane, a sleeping body, or the texture of a coat. At this distance, the distinction between animal and landscape begins to dissolve. Hair becomes grass, the curve of a body echoes the slope of a mountain, and the horse seems to carry its surroundings on its skin. Photographed on black-and-white film, the series moves between the intimacy of these encounters and the quiet openness of the valley. There is something dreamlike in the horses' presence, as if they belong to a time outside the human world, following rhythms that need no explanation. Rather than trying to capture the landscape as a distant spectacle, Saman Oskouei looks at it through these animals, finding a world of textures, gestures, and fleeting forms. The photographs invite us to stay with these moments, where the familiar becomes strange and the boundary between a living body and the natural world grows uncertain.

In the mountains of Juta Valley, Georgia, horses appear and disappear into the landscape. Sometimes they stand quietly against the vastness of the mountains; at other times, the view moves close, lingering on a mane, a sleeping body, or the texture of a coat. At this distance, the distinction between animal and landscape begins to dissolve. Hair becomes grass, the curve of a body echoes the slope of a mountain, and the horse seems to carry its surroundings on its skin. Photographed on black-and-white film, the series moves between the intimacy of these encounters and the quiet openness of the valley. There is something dreamlike in the horses' presence, as if they belong to a time outside the human world, following rhythms that need no explanation. Rather than trying to capture the landscape as a distant spectacle, Saman Oskouei looks at it through these animals, finding a world of textures, gestures, and fleeting forms. The photographs invite us to stay with these moments, where the familiar becomes strange and the boundary between a living body and the natural world grows uncertain.

In the mountains of Juta Valley, Georgia, horses appear and disappear into the landscape. Sometimes they stand quietly against the vastness of the mountains; at other times, the view moves close, lingering on a mane, a sleeping body, or the texture of a coat. At this distance, the distinction between animal and landscape begins to dissolve. Hair becomes grass, the curve of a body echoes the slope of a mountain, and the horse seems to carry its surroundings on its skin. Photographed on black-and-white film, the series moves between the intimacy of these encounters and the quiet openness of the valley. There is something dreamlike in the horses' presence, as if they belong to a time outside the human world, following rhythms that need no explanation. Rather than trying to capture the landscape as a distant spectacle, Saman Oskouei looks at it through these animals, finding a world of textures, gestures, and fleeting forms. The photographs invite us to stay with these moments, where the familiar becomes strange and the boundary between a living body and the natural world grows uncertain.