Giddy up! Stage Coach Mary rides again – in pictures
As part of its selection of the best works from Les Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles 2026, The Guardian highlights the work of Ayana V. Jackson, focusing on her use of “equestrian embodiment” to revisit the lives of historic Black and mestiza horsewomen who challenged racial and gender prejudice. The article features selections from You Forgot to See Me Coming, , and American Simulacrum: Hidden in Plain Sight, in which Jackson uses staged self-portraiture to revisit overlooked historical figures and question the ways dominant imagery has shaped narratives around race and gender.
Jackson explains that she works from archives “to retrieve those narratives most often left out of the frame,” using embodiment and “critical fabulation” to bring these stories into the present. The article also references her Intimate Justice series, which shifts the focus toward imagined moments of rest, introspection, and self-possession for Black women, expanding her practice from historical reconstruction to the recovery of experiences and perspectives largely absent from the photographic record.
