£50, GOST Publishing, Hardback, 128 pages, ISBN: 9781915423962
They ride with precision, poise and peril. Eight women, side-saddle, skirts flaring, weaving across an arena in synchronised chaos. It’s ballet on horseback. This is escaramuza, the all-female discipline of charrería, Mexico’s national sport. Traditionally a male preserve of cattle ranching and roping, escaramuza was born as a space for women to perform, compete and reclaim the arena, both literally and symbolically.
Swiss photographer Constance Jaeggi, a competitive rider herself, travelled across the United States to document these teams. From Arizona to Washington she captures women whose stories cross borders as deftly as their horses cross paths. The resulting book, Escaramuza, blends her portraits with newly commissioned poetry by Angelina Sáenz and Ire’ne Lara Silva. It gives the project a lyrical counterpoint…
