In the late 1990s and early 2000s, after decades of documenting and critiquing the conditions in America’s cities through her photography, Mimi Plumb created this compelling series of portraits of horses. Each summer, she traveled from San Francisco to Kings Canyon, Utah, to spend time with a herd of horses, to move with them, to watch and observe. Wary of the dangers of cliche, Plumb took the time to gradually grow closer to her subjects, both mentally and physically. Some of her shots of the wild horses are taken from such close distances that they are shown only in fragments. Through her eye, the horses appear as more than animals; they become nature and
Megalith-Still is imbued with a deep tenderness, and powerful physic weight.

“The horses sleep lying down, legs twitching, mouths wrapped around blades of grass. The flies are attracted to their moist, flickering eyes. I’m as close as I can focus, examining their faces, tails, hooves and bellies, bewitched by the sensuality of horse and place.
I am in a meadow high in the Sierra Nevada. Channels of the San Joaquin River braid through the thick, lush grass. I take off my shoes and socks, roll up my pants and wade through the shallow water to where the horses are now eating. They trace a pattern, mysterious to me, around and around the meadow, eating, drinking, and sleeping.
Late in the afternoon, the horses abruptly leave the meadow in a single line. I race after them through a swamp of thick mud and dead trees and branches which scratch my arms. They trot and canter, moving faster than they’ve moved all day. I can’t catch up to them. When I reach the edge of the main riverbank, I see the last of the horses cautiously step into the deep, swift-moving water, and slowly float to the other side.” - Mimi Plumb

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Mimi Plumb (1953), also known as Mimi Plumb-Chambers, is an American photographer and educator, living in Berkeley, California. Plumb is part of a long tradition of socially engaged documentary photographers concerned with California. She received her BFA in Photography in 1976 from the San Francisco Art Institute and received her MFA in photography from there in 1986.
Now retired, she taught photography for 28 years at San Jose State University in San Jose, California and for 10 years at the San Francisco Art Institute.