Marc Alt

Salt of the Earth. Thom Hill on his horse Whiskey for The Salt Ranch The Salt Ranch

Mark Schott, Wallowa County, Oregon 2020.

I grew up in Hawai’i and my father had a small piece of land in Waimanalo, below the Olomana mountains. He always had a love of Arabian horses, and even bought them when he could from Egypt and Poland. The black stallion in the first photo was named Aquarius and was shipped from Cairo to us in Honolulu. Sometimes we would let him run free at Waimanalo beach causing quite a scene (my dad is very eccentric and also wanted to race chariots pulled by pairs of Arabians on a dirt track we cleared around the ranch). Maybe you can see where some of my love for the visual beauty of horses came from. I’m always grateful to my father for exposing me to horses and for inspiring a lifelong appreciation of them.

I like to suffer for my art. Hello, I’m Marc, introducing myself here. I was born and raised in Hawai’i, grew up around horses and the ocean. I shoot a lot of traditional western cowboy culture and portraits, beauty and editorial work. I love to collaborate on fun adventurous shoots and generally try to have a lot of laughs while shooting. This shot was after a day of scrambling up wet rocks and muddy slopes deep in Nu’uanu valley on O’ahu, hanging on for dear life to vines with 50 pounds of camera gear on my back (thanks to my model and collaborator for the day Olivia Anuhea for pulling me out of the mud). Hope to shoot with you someday. Aloha.