‘This is a work about portraiture,’ says Kevin Horan, who is based in Langley, Washington. ‘What it does and how it works. I’ve made portraits of people for years and the chemistry of it is still mysterious. I tell my subjects that a good portrait is a collaboration between photographer and subject. But how do you collaborate with a goat? A goat you’ve just met?’ All photos: Kevin Horan/Pictura Gallery

‘My first subjects were the sheep across the lane from me. But that didn’t work out. I then went to a small goat dairy, and a couple of goat fanciers, who were more cooperative’

‘They seem to have a personality. Perhaps they do – and the photograph lets us see it. Or perhaps the language of the photo creates the impression of a personality’

‘While the idea was to bring farm animals into a classical portrait studio, the studio actually goes to them – it takes a couple of hours to set up lighting and backdrops’

‘There’s no single method that is sure to work, but one thing that never works is coercion’

‘Once a small area is lit for a sitting, our subjects are led into the sweet spot and persuaded to stay there a while’