Wiebke Haas is a dedicated award-winning equine and animal photographer from Germany. Ever since she was a little girl she dreamt of hoof-beats and flying through the fields on a back of a horse.

So after school it was very clear that she’d find a job near to that passion for horses. Therefore she combined her love for animals with the desire to be creative and became an equine photographer.

Wiebke spent 3 years to become an officially certified photographer. Therefor she successfully completed a dual apprenticeship for photography where she worked for practice in a „normal“ portrait studio and learned all the theory on a vocational college. From the very beginning she knew that she’d focus on animal photography so Wiebke asked her teachers to support this choice. After that she took the risk of self-employment.

Since then Wiebke works as photographer around the world for agencies, magazines, commercial campaigns and horse studs as well as author of photographic literature and as personal coach for other photographers. Her images became well known via publishings in TV and media and several exhibitions.

The essence of her photography is the work in studio. Clear structures, the control of lights and the emphasis on the horses themselves supports her intention to make the viewer look at an image over and over again. In studio she likes to photograph with different light formers (soft boxes, strip lights, normal reflectors,…) and multiple light sources to work out the body parts Wiebke wants to emphasize. The more complicated the better.
Of course you can also find a stunning horse in full gallop in front of a beautiful outdoor location while the evening sun is shimmering through the mane and tale in her gallery. Under the open sky it’s especially the early morning sun or the evening light when the sun is close to the horizon and even a diffused light of a cloudy day what’s typical lightning for her images.

Sometimes it takes two or three days until Wiebke gets the picture she had in mind. Horses don’t use our language to communicate so as an equine photographer you have to find a way to tell a horse what you want it to do for you. Each horse has its own character and attitude. One of the most challenging and also fulfilling tasks is to find out how to direct and motivate this one particular horse and turn an idea into a picture. The post processing of a single picture takes up to 20 or more hours.

It’s not a secret that horses belong to the most magnificent animals on our planet or at least that’s what an equestrian would say. For an equestrian it’s hard to imagine one day in life without horses. Sometimes it’s not that easy to explain to normal people where this addiction comes from. Maybe it’s the pride, the gracefulness and pure beauty of the horse. Maybe it’s the gentle and highly spiritual mind of the animal with whom an equestrian is bonded with. And maybe it’s just the strength and power where we put our trust in.

After a photo story about the life of the Pyramid horses in Gizeh some new projects are waiting to be finished. This year Wiebke visited a herd of wild horses in Bosnia and will do a trip to South America for a photo reportage about rescued racing horses.[Official Website]