About “Wild and Free” gallery…

I actually loved horses all along… Despite the fact that they bear the suffering of the mankind, they remained always mythological, magical creatures that run without compromising their grandeur in my eyes. But I recently realized how little I actually thought about them throughout my life. Horses in these pictures are wild horses, or ''Yilki'' as Turks call them. Simply, "Yilki" is a name given to the "Wild" horses in the nature. 

''Yilki'' herds in some regions are the emancipated individuals of the horses that have been abandoned to nature since the Ottoman times. 

Very recently, I happened to spend several hours with the herd that horses in these pictures belong to. How lucky I was! When I first encountered the herd, majority ran away from me, obviously a stranger who might appear to be dangerous for them. However, the stallions remained and kept me away from their herd. I just patiently waited for them to accept me as I wanted to be around them, and they eventually did. A young stallion approached me first, then the others swiftly accepted my presence there and they finally chose to trust me by civilly. Being close to an absolutely free creature in nature and making eye contact with it is in an indescribable emotion. After realizing our own imprisonment in this world, which we mostly refuse to accept by rather calling them “Wild”, I now envy Yilki’s and their freedom with pure admiration.

Humanity's arrogance labels those who do not depend on them as “Wild”, and those who are not like them as “Crazy” while these “Wild” Yilki horses in these pictures look nobly at humanity's so called “magnificent civilization”, saying so much that we cannot even hear…

Turkiye, 2021

Onur Guney