The Hug

• Prize
  Bronze in Nature/Pets
• Photographer
  Aga Karmol
• Agency / Studio
  Aga Karmol Art
• Technical Info
  Full Frame100mm, 1/1600, F 5.6
• Photo Date
  07 October 2023

Fighting stallions. This is what horses do when living wild. They won't kill each other, they fight to establish leadership. It is us, owners, who deprive them of their natural behaviour, because we are being overprotective. Keeping stallions alone often leads to them being frustrated and becoming agressive. Horses are social animals who are unhappy when they can't interact with others. During this photoshoot, none of them got injured. They were closely supervised to avoid any risk. After an initial fight, they were perfectly happy with each other.

Aga Karmol studied art and earned a Master of Fine Arts Degree (MFA) from the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk. Her passion for photography began with film cameras. She cooperated with the biggest Polish national equestrian magazine Kon Polski, where she regularly published photo stories from horseback travels across the world. Her photos and articles with an equine theme were also printed in The Forbes and National Geographic Traveler. In 2005, Aga relocated to London and became a correspondent for the magazine. In 2014, she moved to Somerset and shifted her focus to fine art photography.