LIFE BEYOND FIRST CLASS
ARTS & COLLECTIBLES
THE BEAUTY
OF RESTRAINT
Through his collaboration with Ricky Cooper, Captain of the Wales Polo Team, fine art photographer Matthew Seed reveals the beauty, character and extraordinary partnership behind one of the world’s most exhilarating sports.
REBECCA ETORIA
A polo player sits astride his horse beneath a sky heavy with storm clouds, his mallet held upright as though the game has been momentarily suspended. Light catches the polished surface of his helmet, the deep red of his jersey and the powerful shoulders of the horse beneath him. There is no crowd in sight, no opposing team, no rush toward goal. Yet the image possesses an intensity that makes it difficult to look away.
The photograph is part of A Study of Polo, a series by British fine art photographer Matthew Seed, whose collaboration with Ricky Cooper, Captain of the Wales Polo Team, offers an entirely different perspective on a sport celebrated for its speed and spectacle.
Polo has long offered photographers an irresistible subject. The athleticism and split-second decisions make for remarkable images, as do, occasionally, the fashionable choices of those watching from the sidelines. But Seed was interested in the visual language that existed beneath the competition. Working with Cooper, he began to examine the sport through individual gestures, the relationship between horse and rider, and the remarkable forms that often disappear in the excitement of a match.
“Beneath the speed and spectacle is an extraordinary vocabulary of form: the geometry of the horse and rider, the tension of a rein, the sweep of a polo mallet, the architecture of muscle and movement,” Seed explains. “By removing the movement, I could make each element a study.”
What emerges is a collection that feels closer to classical portraiture than sporting photography. Against backgrounds of extraordinary darkness, horses and riders appear almost sculptural, their forms defined by carefully placed light. In other compositions, dramatic skies and open landscapes lend the photographs the atmosphere of Old Master paintings. The familiar elements of polo remain, but their significance has shifted. A rein becomes a graceful line within a composition, a helmet catches a solitary highlight, and the relationship between horse and rider becomes the subject rather than the outcome of the match.
Perhaps most surprising is that Seed creates these images outdoors in daylight. Through powerful flash lighting balanced against the natural environment, he controls precisely how much of the surrounding landscape remains visible. As daylight recedes within the exposure, the horse emerges from the shadows, its anatomy and expression revealed with remarkable precision.
“I use light not merely to illuminate a horse, but to sculpt it,” he says. “In much the same way a painter builds form through light and shadow, I use lighting to transform something entirely real and tangible into something that can feel almost otherworldly.”
The process requires patience, particularly when photographing an animal with its own temperament and intentions. Every adjustment in composition, perspective and light must accommodate a living subject, and Seed is careful that his artistic interpretation never compromises the authenticity of the horse itself. He admits he was initially uncertain how Cooper would respond to a photographic study so far removed from the conventional imagery of professional polo. Cooper, however, immediately understood the concept, and the two began working together to consider each composition in unusually close detail.
During one sitting, Seed noticed Cooper standing quietly beside one of his horses. With no competition underway and nothing being asked of either subject, the exchange revealed something he had been searching for throughout the project.
“I use light not merely to illuminate a horse, but to sculpt it.”– Matthew Seed
“The horse was looking at Ricky, Ricky was looking at the horse, and for a moment the entire hierarchy of athlete and animal seemed to disappear,” Seed recalls. “They were simply two partners who knew one another intimately.”
That observation became an important emotional thread in the series. Beneath the athletic performance was a relationship built on trust, familiarity and an understanding that rarely receives attention in the photographs taken during competition. Seed wanted that connection to be visible, even when the images themselves were reduced to little more than a silhouette, a gesture or a fleeting expression.
For Cooper, the results were equally revealing. “When we first spoke, I was intrigued as to how his distinctive photographic style would translate to polo,” he says. “The result exceeded every expectation. He has captured not simply the spectacle of the game, but its extraordinary beauty, power, grace and emotion.”
The completed works were produced as large-scale fine art photographs for Cooper’s private collection. Several now hang in his home, where they are appreciated as much for their artistic qualities as for their personal significance. This was an essential part of Seed’s ambition: to create a body of work that could be encountered and appreciated independently of the sporting world from which it originated.
“Matthew’s work transcends photography. Each image possesses the presence and character of a genuine work of art,” Cooper observes. “I am proud to have several of his large-scale pieces on my walls, where they are admired as much for their artistic merit as for what they represent.”
The commission also became the first expression of Seed’s Fine Art Study, a concept in which individual portraits form part of a larger visual narrative. Rather than simply selecting a collection of striking photographs, Seed considers how each image relates to the next, creating compositions that can be displayed individually or brought together as multi-panel installations. The intention is to give the subject the depth and attention traditionally associated with a significant artistic commission.
Working with designer Luigi Carnovale, Seed also produced a hand-bound monograph, conceived as an artwork in its own right. Its photographs were arranged with careful attention to sequence, scale and the spaces between images, creating an experience intended to be enjoyed slowly rather than approached as a conventional photographic catalogue.
The project would subsequently become part of a remarkable occasion in Bahrain. Invited to exhibit his work through equine art curator Joyce Ter Horst of Paard Verzameld, Seed created a unique monograph for His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. The volume combined selected photographs from his three-decade career with the complete Ricky Cooper study, bringing together two expressions of his artistic practice in a bespoke presentation.
For Seed, the experience carried significance beyond the exhibition itself. Bahrain’s longstanding appreciation of the horse provided a particularly meaningful setting for work concerned with the animal’s beauty, individuality and relationship with people. The presentation also reflected the enduring connection between equestrian culture and the collecting of art, a tradition that stretches from historic painted portraits to the contemporary photographic works commissioned by collectors today.
While those familiar with horses may recognise subtleties of posture, temperament and expression, Seed believes the photographs should possess an appeal that extends beyond specialist knowledge. Collectors encountering his work for the first time may respond instead to the dramatic lighting, the scale of a composition or the emotional impression left by an animal emerging from darkness.
“Collectors who come to my work purely through fine art often respond to something entirely different: the light, composition, scale, emotion and sense of presence,” he explains.
That is perhaps the most compelling aspect of A Study of Polo. The photographs remain unmistakably connected to the sport, yet their beauty does not depend upon an understanding of its rules, players or traditions. They can be appreciated as studies of form and character, as personal records of an extraordinary partnership, or simply as works that reward the pleasure of looking.
With Cooper among the players at the Scottsdale Polo Championships, the series offers a particularly fitting introduction to a side of polo rarely seen by spectators. The exhilaration of the game may last only a few moments, but Seed has found a way to hold something of its character long after the horses have left the field.
And for those fortunate enough to live with one of these photographs, the game is only the beginning.
Explore Matthew Seed’s fine art photography and A Study of Polo at matthewseed.com.
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