Buzkashi horsemen battling for a headless goat: Todd Antony’s greatest {photograph} | Artwork and design

I can’t bear in mind the place I first examine buzkashi. Played throughout central Asia, the game is assumed to this point again to the time of Genghis Khan. It includes massive teams of males on horseback making an attempt to seize the headless physique of a goat and preserve management of it lengthy sufficient to drop it over a line marked on the bottom. There are not any groups, it’s each man for himself, and video games can final six hours.

My tasks typically contain heightened colour, however after I determined I wished to get again to the fundamentals of sunshine and tone and do a black and white collection, this topic appeared to suit. A number of the buzkashi footage I’d discovered was from Tajikistan, so I went there, hiring an area fixer to assist take care of the logistics as information of the time and place of matches tends to journey by phrase of mouth only a few days upfront.

The first recreation I went to was the largest – about 300 riders at its peak. Tajikistan is 93% mountains, so matches are staged within the folds of valleys, or in dried riverbeds the place there’s some pure geography to comprise the play. It by no means actually does, although, and spectators typically should scatter as riders scythe by the group. The “goal” traces might be the size of two soccer pitches aside, with the route of the pack alternating every time somebody scores. Those who rating win a prize, with the worth rising as the sport goes on – I’ve seen individuals declare carpets, a camel, even a automotive, in order the match progresses, extra gamers take part.

My private tasks are self-funded from my promoting work, and I attempt to train the identical diploma of planning as I do in my jobs for purchasers. At one match, I shot from the again of a pickup truck in the midst of the sector of play – the pack handed inside metres, permitting for some visceral photos. Buzkashi is a reasonably brutal sport, however my goal wasn’t to normalise cruelty – I used to be photographing one thing ingrained in Tajik tradition.

It struck me that the riders have been looking for management inside absolute chaos to get one thing they wished, and that’s additionally what I used to be making an attempt to do with my pictures. In wider pictures, the situation allowed for cinematic outcomes, with clouds of mud from the horses’ hooves and smoke from spectators’ charcoal fires creating a stupendous layering impact.

I additionally visited the farms a number of the riders have been from and took portraits of them alone or with their households – they have been extremely hospitable. For this shot, I’d headed right into a subject with the three horses and their riders. It was a beautiful day and there was an enormous, snowy mountain vary within the background. I used to be organising with my assistant when the fixer stated: “You’d better hurry …” I turned to see a wall of fog rolling in the direction of us.

It’s necessary to have the ability to react to occasions as they occur. As the background turned white, the work of Richard Avedon jumped into my thoughts. I obtained my assistant to face off to the left of the body holding a light-weight above the horses. I had one other flash subsequent to the digital camera, and tried to get the horses to work together with one another as I sat on the bottom photographing them.

There have been moments the place they obtained uncomfortably shut, and I’d should run backwards whereas crouching. I’ve obtained some nice footage of me touchdown on my arse – however the ensuing picture is a graphic distillation of a second in buzkashi. The clear background permits for the stress within the horses to be clearly articulated, and the visible pressure created by having many of the riders cropped tight on the sting of body displays the claustrophobic nature of a match the place area is at an absolute premium.

Todd Antony is the winner of the Sport class within the Sony World Photography awards 2026. The accompanying exhibition is at Somerset House, London, till 4 May. Guardian readers can use code GUARDIAN15 (legitimate till 4 May, 5pm) to redeem a 15% low cost on exhibition tickets.

Todd Antony’s CV

Born: New Zealand, 1975
High level: The Sony World Photography Awards. But by way of capturing, there was each a literal and metaphorical excessive level after I was in Bolivia capturing at excessive altitude on Huayna Potosi mountain with the unimaginable Cholitas Escalaodras.
Top tip: Before you decide up the digital camera, ask your self one query: what is that this truly about? Not what does it appear to be, however what does it imply? That’s one thing that’s typically glossed over, particularly now, when the instruments are so good and the temptation to chase aesthetics is in every single place. Story-led work doesn’t imply ignoring craft. It means utilizing craft in service of one thing. Write one sentence about what the work is about earlier than you shoot. Not an outline, an intention. That sentence assists your edit, your gentle, your lens selection.