Big picture: Hindu Cows, by Toni Meneguzzo

As pet projects go, photographing highly decorated sacred cows across rural India would appear to be far removed from the fast-moving world of commercial fashion photography in Milan, Toni Meneguzzo’s milieu for the past 30 years. But the animals’ slender legs, wide eyes and elegant postures aren’t entirely unrelated to fashion’s obsession with beauty. “In a way,” says Meneguzzo, “it’s like shooting models. I’m still looking for a good composition: four legs on show, a good profile, perhaps one hoof slightly forward, the head turned. Cows, like fashion models, have such serene elegance.” Meneguzzo came across his first decorated cow while photographing the spiritual city of Auroville in Tamil Nadu, south-east India, during Pongal, a four-day harvest festival. → Photograph: Toni Meneguzzo

He was entranced by the way it was adorned with garlands of flowers and trinkets, its skin painted with pigment in a way “that recalled the work of Jackson Pollock, the skin treated like a canvas. It was modern art.” → Photograph: Toni Meneguzzo

Working across India, he used his good humour to coax village dignitaries into allowing him access to holy cows housed in goshalas (literally cow shelters), where they are well looked after as befits their sacred status. → Photograph: Toni Meneguzzo

The animals are decorated for festivals, celebrations and feast days. People were happy to let him shoot – Meneguzzo cropped the animals and placed them on white backgrounds, “as if they’re floating in their own milk” – and always carried extra pigments, such as yellow turmeric, just in case the animals required touching up. → Photograph: Toni Meneguzzo

He even learned how to call the cows to attention so they made contact with the lens for a second. But finding them was hard: one 20-day trip yielded just one shot. → Photograph: Toni Meneguzzo

Six years and 98 cows later, Meneguzzo has moved on to pastures new: documenting rural bandits in Argentina. These personal projects, he says, take him temporarily away from fashion, but he always returns rejuvenated. Photograph: Toni Meneguzzo

Hindu Cows Photograph: Hindu Cows

Hindu Cow Photograph: Toni Meneguzzo

Hindu Cows Photograph: Toni Meneguzzo

Hindu Cows Photograph: Toni Meneguzzo

Hindu Cows Photograph: Toni Meneguzzo

Hindu Cow Photograph: Toni Meneguzzo