When photographs are created by light falling on film, they show what was physically present at that particular moment in time, but some also reveal the emotional undercurrent of a moment as well: what’s not seen but felt, and what reverberates. “The raw materials of photography,” Carter once said in an interview, “are light and time and memory.”

Carter’s oeuvre is vast, but the enigmatic nature of his way of photographing people, the places they live and work, and the animals that populate their worlds can be seen in the hundreds of images included in Keith Carter: Fifty Years, a retrospective published by the University of Texas Press.

On the surface, the photos are snapshots of commonplace goings-on—an image of a five-year-old boy holding a large and weathered baritone in Mexico or two women at a church service in Newton, Texas. But Carter manipulates light and focus to evoke the moods and stories of his subjects. His particular technique of focus—sometimes sharp and bright, often intentionally blurred—and the shallow depth of field, a common practice of 19th century photographers, creates pictures where the story is not spelled out.

Animals have long been an interest of Carter’s, and he often features horses. Carter, quoting Leonardo da Vinci, describes them as “God’s most perfect design.” Many of his most haunting photos explore the invisible links between humans and beasts: A boy hugs his horse goodbye after it’s sold, a Mississippi man sees a litter of kittens as his family, and a distraught woman discovers that a fox found its way into her henhouse. Each portrait presents a puzzle to viewers, who must attempt to discover for themselves what it is about this certain image that makes it so poignant.

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