Seahorse, Jamaica, 2010

I PHOTOGRAPHED ROBERT AND HIS HORSE, Pretty Boy, in Jamaica in December 2010. I encountered them on the beach offering rides to tourists. After Robert told me he and Pretty Boy swam together, I wanted to photograph it. Two hours later I was in the water with my dive mask, camera, and Aquatech housing, having the time of my life.

The best of the series is this image. It’s framed horizontally, and the horizon was placed almost directly across the middle of the frame, allowing both the water and the sky to remain equally important. The legs of the horse are visible below the water. Had I placed the horizon on the lower third, where most of the textbooks tell you it should go, I would have cropped out this element. That decision alone would have changed this image, and although the horse being up to his mouth in water would have implied deep water, it’s by showing that his legs are dangling that allows the photograph to read as though the horse is swimming, which it was, and not just standing in deep water.