Chisholm Gallery

Cueman, Lisa

American Contemporary

Lisa Hutchings Cueman grew up on the island of Bermuda, and is a 16th generation Bermudian. She isn’t able to recall exactly when she started riding but just knowing that she always rode, Lisa has spent the majority of her life with and around horses. In 1993, she and her thoroughbred jumper boarded a container ship for a four-day, trans-Atlantic crossing to the USA and after reaching North America, she relocated to Ontario, Canada, in order to focus solely on training and competing. After several years, she retired her faithful travel companion and beloved athletic partner, completely stepping away from being a horse owner and competitor. It was at this point, Lisa returned to the love for photography that she had first discovered during high school.

It was a photographer friend’s advice of “photograph what you really love” that turned Lisa’s attention back to the horses, drawing her back into an environment which she knows and loves, but this time with a camera in her hand. In developing her new career, Lisa’s skills were honed while attending technical programs at The Maine Photographic Workshop as well as workshops conducted elsewhere. The uncommon freedom that Lisa experienced in childhood coupled with her horse filled years serves to influence her work today. Riveted by a horse’s raw beauty, Lisa is drawn in to be physically closer, abstracting her subjects in order to emphasize their beauty, forms, textures and lines that she finds so seductive and irresistible. In doing so, Lisa hopes to present the horse, as if for the first time, and in a way that perhaps has not been seen before.

Lisa’s most recent body of work centers around the wild horses of the Outer Banks of North Carolina, in particular, several herds found at the southern end of the islands. These wild horses, registered as descendants of the Spanish mustangs, have survived centuries of storms and harsh conditions and in adapting to the environment have learned to not only survive in the conditions but also to thrive. The stunning waters, tall grasses and ocean breezes serve up a compelling landscape in which to capture these majestic and wild living links to the past. There is much to celebrate in their survival as it is a testament to their tenacity and the respect they are afforded by the community that surrounds them.

Lisa has found inspiration in the works of photographers Tim Flach, Nick Brandt and Amanda Jones, all well known for their very elegant and different approaches to the photography of animals.

Happily ensconced in Vermont since 1996, Lisa resides with her husband and two dogs.