MEGALITH-STILL by Mimi Plumb, STANLEY/BARKER

9.8 × 8.6 in
136 pages
Tri-tone printing
Three-quarter hardcover case binding
Wool paper wrap
STANLEY/BARKER, 2023

Each summer from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, the acclaimed photographer traveled from her home in San Francisco to Kings Canyon, a wilderness where she communed with a band of horses. Plumb would come to produce Megalith-Still, a series of portraits of the herd, 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

Three-quarter bound in a uniquely tactile fibrous wool paper (produced using surplus from the fashion industry) and expertly printed in tritone, Mimi Plumb’s Megalith-Still is a truly timeless publication.