The first time she picked up the camera was to capture her newborn daughter. From that moment on, Kirsten Griffin fell in love with photography. Nature’s flora and fauna are often her subject matter, as she finds them to be filled with beauty. Her approach is to be present in the moment and let the “analytical side” of her brain rest, in order to have her intuition guide her, she said. “I think it’s just being honest, finding things that are beautiful, finding things that I’m resonating with.”
Oklahoma, where Griffin is based, is home to 39 Native American tribal nations. She considers herself fortunate to live in an area where tribes often hold public powwows that she can witness and photograph. “It’s just gorgeous to see the dignity … and this deep connection to their heritage,” she said.
“Horses are very, very sensitive,” Griffin said. “They can pick up your energy so easily, and you have to be honest and truthful with them. You just can’t go with an agenda.” Griffin captured these images at the Return to Freedom wild horse sanctuary in California.
Griffin used to travel to remote places around the world, where it’s so quiet you can “hear the rhythm of nature,” she said. But after the pandemic upended travel, she turned homeward—the southwestern region of America—in search of beauty. Below, she captures longhorn bulls at a ranch in northeastern Oklahoma and bison roaming in Yellowstone National Park.
Here, she snaps an image of a cowboy running his herd home in Sante Fe, New Mexico.
