Jon Tonks was on a US road trip bookended by photography exhibitions: his own in Indiana, and the Houston photography festival. This shot was taken in Austin, Texas, where he’d met a friend from back home in Bath.
“We’d just arrived and had done a quick search of recommended bars in our area. This place, C-Boy’s Heart & Soul, was just down the street from our Airbnb. The ground floor was like every American dive bar you can imagine. There were booths down one side, racks of bourbon behind the bar, even a singer who was the spit of Ray Charles.
“Then this dude in a cowboy hat on a white horse appeared at the door; it completed the picture so perfectly. It was such a comical moment, made even funnier by the fact that everyone around us seemed so blase about it. The guy on the door didn’t even look up!”
Given the low light, Tonks would have needed a tripod if he had used his Hasselblad 501. “But with my iPhone, I just had to swivel on my chair and catch the moment. A few minutes later, the horse and his owner had disappeared into the night.”
