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When Ronald Reagan said
there’s nothing better for the soul of a man
than the outside of a horse, he wasn’t talking
about photographer and Brick resident Keith
Horvath, but he very well could have been.
Six years ago, Keith
Horvath was in the midst of a deep depression
related to his own illness, his wife’s second
battle against breast cancer, and the death of
his niece.
Keith could not have
known that when his wife, artist Cindy Fleureton,
asked for help taking her Appaloosa mare,
Dreamer, for a ride around the stable, that his
life would change forever.
“I just began to feel a
little better,” Keith said. “I was outside, it
was a beautiful day, and there were kids off in
the distance riding horses.” Eventually, Keith
began spending more time at the stable, riding
and taking care of the horses. When he brought
along his camera one day, a new career was born.
Since then, Keith has
become a top equine portrait photographer,
specializing in sepia-toned prints and
English-style riding. Keith’s work is currently
on display and for sale at the Brick Branch of
the Ocean County Library, with proceeds
benefiting The Cancer Concern Center of Point
Pleasant Beach.
“There is accuracy and
detail in his work that owners and riders
notice,” said Brick resident Peggy Petersen, a
former horse owner who attended Keith’s
reception at the library Saturday. “You can see
the power and concentration of the horse in this
photo, and the position of the crop in this
photo is just.”
While photographing
horses can be both rewarding and challenging, he
says it helps to have a plan in his head before
he begins shooting. “I’m never in a rush,” he
said. “I try to get everything right in the
picture: where the sun is, where I am, where the
shadows are.” Horse owner Margy Favreau, of
Convent Station, commissioned Keith to
photograph her 9-year-old gelding, Unique.
“He spent a lot of time
with us,” Favreau said. “Unique would look at me
and not at the camera. Keith must have taken 25
or 30 shots to get this one,” she said of
Unique’s photograph, on display at the library.
While he was reluctant at
first to try digital photography, Keith said he
soon embraced the technology because of the
endless creative opportunities it provides.
“I was stuck on film for
a while because you can get thousands of gray
tones,” Keith said. “But you can get millions of
tones in Photoshop.” Keith said that the 10
years he spent working in the software industry
gave him valuable tools, which helped him expand
his technical ability with computers and
software.
Keith Horvath began
taking photos when he was 11 years old after his
father handed him his first 35mm camera. In his
mid-20s, Keith worked as a wedding photographer,
specializing in black-and-white pictures.
Although he has taken some classes in
photography at Middlesex Community College,
Edison, Keith’s knowledge of the art is
self-taught and comes from reading books,
magazines, and taking lots of pictures.
“It’s all about the
ability to see light in the picture,” he said.
Keith said that having another artist in the
house also helps. His wife is an accomplished
pastel painter and designs and produces a custom
line of jewelry. “I depend on her to tell me
what she thinks about my work, and I do the same
for her,” Keith said. “Cindy runs the business,
helps me select pictures for shows and
publishing. She is my partner in art and life.”
Keith has won a number of
awards for his photography, and his photograph
“Ribbons” was chosen for the 110th Monmouth
County Horse Show’s official souvenir program in
2005 — the first time in a decade a photograph
had been used for the cover. Also some of his
work has been published in various equine
publications through out New Jersey. More
information about Keith Horvath and samples of
his work can also be viewed online at
http://www.gallery251.com or call 848-333-7134. |
