Famend photographer Barbara Livingston suspects Thoroughbreds view her as an “odd clicking individual.”

People would extra probably describe her as an exquisite clicking individual.

Make no mistake, clicking sounds emanate from her nearly continuously as she strives to report the magnificence of 1 horse after one other, all of the whereas brightening the daybreak at racetracks throughout the nation along with her smile.

Livingston is the chief photographer of the Day by day Racing Type. As essential as that’s, it doesn’t start to explain her influence on the business. She has set an unthinkable tempo in profitable 5 Eclipse Awards, three for pictures and two for audio/multi-media. Her itinerant life revolves round securing the subsequent nice picture.

 “It’s not a ardour for me. It’s really an obsession, and I’m unsure it’s at all times helped me as a result of it’s such a powerful drive,” Livingston stated in 2018. “However what are you going to do? When you find yourself obsessed, you simply are.”

That obsession led to the publication of seven books, 4 comprising her fashionable “Previous Buddies” sequence, which depicts the the Aristocracy of retired Thoroughbreds. For Livingston, her artwork is rather more in regards to the horse than the array of apparatus she makes use of.

The native of Schenectady, N.Y., grew to become fascinated with Thoroughbreds at a younger age. She was 10 when she used an Instamatic to take her first photos on the observe. She was 13 when she recorded Ruffian’s victory within the Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.

What’s it about Thoroughbreds that they’ve maintained a lifelong maintain on Livingston?

“I’m by no means in a position to clarify what it’s,” she stated. “They’re nearly legendary creatures.”

Livingston thrives on the chance to work one on one along with her equine topics.

“I’ve been looking for a solution that sums up the sensation you’ve gotten if you find yourself with horses, if you find yourself listening to them, if you find yourself feeling them, if you find yourself smelling them,” she stated. “There’s something extremely religious about that connection. Even a horse you don’t know will watch you and consider tips on how to work with you.”

Livingston is painstaking in her consideration to element. She has undoubtedly strained the persistence of many a staffer as she waits and waits for the one shot that she is aware of is there, the one shot that she will need to have.

“She may be very meticulous and demanding. She received’t do something second-rate, ever,” stated Michael Blowen, who based Previous Buddies at Dream Chase Farm in Georgetown, Ky., in 2003.

Blowen estimates that Livingston’s work helped elevate greater than $50,000 for retired Thoroughbreds at his farm, which takes its identify from her ebook sequence. She snaps all the photographs in an annual journal printed by Day by day Racing Type that helps to attract consideration to Blowen’s trigger.

With every picture, Livingston conveys the dignity of the horse, its energy and, in some pleasant situations, its playfulness.

 “They’re very hardly ever static,” stated Blowen. “There’s at all times motion, and that’s the magnificence of those horses.”

Blowen added, “She may have made a ton of cash taking photographs of celebrities. Thank God she determined she was going to deal with these Thoroughbreds as a result of she’s made an enormous distinction to the animals and the game.”

Whether or not it’s a horse or human in want, Livingston desires to assist. She has organized greater than her share of horse adoptions. She rallied to the facet of horses in determined want after the 2017 hurricane in Puerto Rico.

Nearer to house, Livingston immeasurably brightened the Thanksgiving and Christmas of Jacqueline Holcomb, an avid racing fan and a affected person at Pathways Nursing and Rehabilitation in Niskayuna, N.Y., who’s unable to talk.

For Thanksgiving 2018, she organized FaceTime with two of Holcomb’s favorites from the driving world, Edgar Prado and Julie Krone. When she used social media to recommend followers would possibly attain out to Holcomb for Christmas, they responded with nearly 100 playing cards and 15 presents.

 “She was so appreciative,” Livingston stated. “You might inform along with her eyes.” (Holcomb handed away in 2020.)

In 2017, Livingston additionally frolicked clicking away in a pasture with Increase Towner. She was not on task. There was no payment. She has documented his life in footage each 10 years, and he turned 30 in 2017, graying round his temples and jaw and really a lot slowing down.

 “Lots of older horses, I positively provoke these,” Livingston stated, “as a result of I like the concept of recording the historical past of a horse the place individuals won’t be doing in order a lot.”

And so Livingston focuses in, revealing the essence of every Thoroughbred one click on at a time.

Be aware: This profile was written in 2018 and has been up to date.

Enjoyable Information

• Livingston stored a diary when she was younger and wrote of her want to be a photographer
• Livingston additionally aspired to be an artist, however didn’t really feel she had sufficient capability to pursue that
• Graduated from Syracuse with diploma in experimental pictures
• Estimates that she drives between 30,000 and 40,000 miles yearly 
• Her license plate: Alydar