From Time: "In the summer of 2015, far from the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, Thomas Prior was in California with some time to kill. The photographer had just finished an assignment and had another scheduled a couple weeks later. Instead of flying back to his home in Brooklyn, a friend convinced him to visit a local horse track.
‘It has a cool color scheme, simple, a lot of history, dudes betting, horses and little guys riding them,’ Prior, 36, tells TIME about Santa Anita Park in, Arcadia, Calif.
Prior wasn’t interested in the sport of horse racing or even spending more time with the project. It was something to do between jobs. But the body of work—including timeless portraits of muddy jockeys, powerfully built horses and quiet portraits of visitors, all with his lush desaturated color—symbolized something more important about Prior. His inner compulsion to constantly make pictures paired with his watchful eye has brought him long deserved attention both for his personal work as well as his editorial and commercial assignments..." (For the full story and a photo slideshow, click here)