Literature

Horsemen of the steppes Genghis Khan Polo Camp, Orkhon Valley, Mongolia, August 2006

kindred spirits

Photographer Aline Coquelle joined the travelling caravan of the polo world for six years. The result is Polo, The Nomadic Tribe, an evocative collection of photographs and stories from the sport’s greatest talents

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Polo, The Nomadic Tribe is a book is dedicated to two passions, photography and travel, both linked to a third – the beating heart of the book – polo. A trilogy linked by a philosophy: living with passion. Six years of travels, of meetings, souvenirs, friendship, adventures. Six years following the nomadic caravan of polo from Mongolia to Argentina, the USA to Dubai, Mongolia to England, India to France…

When I visited Argentina for the first time, I was unaware of a particular cultural phenomenon raging in the pampas, one that has spread through every continent for more than twenty-five hundred years and been passed down from generation to generation, overwhelming the hearts and minds of each clan member.

These passionately entranced ones are obsessed with horses, devoted, adoring. They talk about horses, live surrounded by horses, and dream only of horses. They take on the role of ultimate progenitor, performing complex manipulations on elite embryos to produce the ideal cavalry. Their addiction? They need high doses of adrenaline, they crave both absolute freedom and intense pressure, and they have a fierce determination to excel and to conquer, as part of a brotherhood. And let’s not forget their innate sense of style, their timeless elegance, and a je ne sais quoi that reflects a sophisticated, cosmopolitan way of life.

1 Shandur, in Pakistan’s North West Frontier, July 2008. At 3800m above sea level, it is the world’s highest polo fi eld 2 Polo horses training at 6.30am, Palm Desert, Dubai, March 2008 3 Genghis Khan Polo Cup fi nal, Orkhon Valley, Mongolia, August 2006 4 Fighter, Altaf Ali Shah’s horse; a Chitral team winner

A polo addict remains an addict for life. This is passion, this is love, this is a trance and an outlet

Polo is their collective gene. It is a crucial part of their DNA that they simply cannot live without. Whatever the case, a polo addict remains an addict for life. This is passion, this is love, this is a trance and an outlet – a deep physical, social, and cultural phenomenon that links you to the eternal polo nomadic tribe.

From Shandur to Buenos Aires, from Rabat to Orkhon Valley, from Palm Beach to Jaipur, the notion of creating a book about these wild-eyed illuminati became quite obvious to me as I photographed the clans and the individuals. Love can be irrational when choosing a subject to photograph. The sport drew me in, with its sense of brotherhood, with its spirit of the great outdoors, its natural setting a veritable open-air photography studio, saturated with the light of exclusive landscapes, reaching to the ocean shores and to the summits of secret mountains.

Country by country, the best talents and emblematic signatures of polo – Adolfo Cambiaso, Carlos Gracida, Alberto Pedro Heguy – have written down their thoughts on this unique sport and way of life. His Highness Maharaja Sawai Bhawani Singh of Jaipur, Patrick Guerrand Hermès, Roderick Vere Nicoll, Nicholas JA Colquhoun-Denvers, Ali Albwardy, Marcos Uranga, Adam Snow and many others – have handed down stories, along with photographs of the illustrious international polo families and patrons.

The sequence of chapters does not follow a particular chronology, nor an alphabetical list of countries. Rather, it follows the rhythm of the spirit of polo – polo’s own paradoxical tempo – through which the direction of play can change, like a sudden rain shower, a sharp stop, a tight curve; from the pampas to the cities, from desert oases to lands of eternal snow, from the ‘happy few’ to the horsemen of the steppes.

The book represents only the beginning of my journey through the world’s polo tribes (and by extension, through the other nomadic clans). The future holds more adventures to discover and share, from Jordan, Brazil, Nigeria, China, Russia, Kenya, Costa Rica, Thailand or South Africa… Polo, The Nomadic Tribe, by Aline Coquelle, published by Assouline, £85 www.alinecoquelle.com www.assouline.com

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1 Cups for the 2008 Paris Open fi nal presented by (left to right) Madame Alain Buisson, Madame René GalyDejean, Princesse Charles Emmanuel de Bourbon-Parme, Madame Antonio Victor Monteiro 2 Chitral and Gilgit teams fi ghting during the Shandur Polo Tournament, Pakistan, August 2008 ALL PHOTOS ALINE COQUELLE