Equitación Ibérica Italia
The project
Equitación Ibérica Italia brings the Iberian disciplines to Italy, from doma vaquera to arte ed eleganza and classical training, and is the only association that runs the Italian Championship under a mandate from the FITETREC ANTE federation. At Fieracavalli in Verona it turns up with its own members competing. They asked us to cover the whole event. Not a handful of institutional shots, but the material of every single rider who entered the arena, to hand over to them and to publish on the association's channels while the fair was still open.
We worked the way you work inside a competition: positions chosen in advance, arena by arena, and the start list used as a running order so nobody was missed. Fast shutter speeds and open apertures to lift horse and rider off the crowded background of the hall. The second half of the job was speed. Selection and editing happened on site, between one round and the next, so that each member saw themselves published on the same day they competed. That is when the material is worth the most, both to them and to an association that wins new members at events. Staying in the arena from morning to evening was also the part that taught us the most: in a discipline you do not follow, you learn to anticipate a movement by watching, not by reading the programme.
What we made
The heart of the job was not the stand, it was the riders. We followed the start list the way you follow a running order, arena by arena, so that every member entered came out of the day with their own photographs and their own video, not with the leftovers of a generic coverage. Fast shutter speeds and open apertures: in a busy hall the problem is never the subject, it is everything behind it.
Doma vaquera, arte ed eleganza, classical training and equestrian shows all have different movements, and to a trained eye a figure caught at the wrong moment is a wrong figure. Before every round we had someone explain what would happen and in what order. It is also why we looked for the details of tack and costume: they tell the Spanish tradition better than a wide posed shot, and they are the images that travel furthest inside the riding world.
The right moment in a figure lasts a fraction of a second, and you anticipate it by watching the hind legs rather than the head. We kept shutter speeds fast even as the light dropped, because a clean but blurred photograph is no use to anyone.
In the evening performances the stage light keeps changing colour. Instead of correcting it we kept it: the blue cast on the rider is part of how the show looks live, and pulling it back to neutral white would have told the story of an evening that never happened.
Beyond the figures we looked for the moments around the round: the salute to the stands, the wait before going in, the hand on the horse's neck right after. Those are the images that get reshared the most, because the member recognises themselves and because they show a busy fair instead of a horse working well. The background is the usual problem, barriers and hall numbers: we shot from low down and worked the aperture to keep them recognisable but out of focus.
This is an extract of what we published while Fieracavalli was still running. Selection and editing happened on site, between one round and the next, vertical and subtitled, because that is where the riding community keeps up. Whoever was at the fair saw themselves posted the same day, whoever was not understood what they were missing.
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The acrobatic performance, another moment
Doma vaquera in the arena, a wider frame
The process
Photo and video coverage of every member competing, for the whole run of the event.
Selection and editing on site, going out on the association's channels day by day.
Full archive to the association and a dedicated set for every member who had competed.