Live and Let Live
The story begins with three friends — Neja Meta, Špela, and Tinka — and a pregnant mare that would change their lives. Faced with the challenge of finding space for their growing family, they took a leap of faith: signing a lease on an old farm field, they built an equestrian center from nothing, using only their determination and bare hands.
From this humble beginning grew Terra Anima (Soul of the Earth), both an equestrian center and a Society for Deep Ecology. Today, they work to protect European wetlands while teaching others to reconnect with their natural roots. Each woman brings unique gifts to their shared mission: one is a writer and storyteller, another practical and inventive, and the third has lived in harmony with the forest since age 15.
Through fifteen years of friendship and collaboration, they’ve demonstrated that even the smallest elements of nature serve a purpose. Their work reveals an essential truth: that our ‘culture of the heart’ — our deep connection to nature and each other — matters above all else.
This project explores the many dimensions of connection: between women, between people and other living beings, between dreams and reality. At its core, it speaks to our fundamental longing to belong to something authentic and true.
“Understanding the scope of our environmental problems and seeing the world's reaction to them made me realize that the stories we tell to make a difference don't have to be grand.“
Interview
What was your inspiration, process, and research?
When I met Neja-Meta and later Špela and Tina, I was 9 years old and wanted to learn natural horsemanship. I watched them grow from being three very good friends to badass women who rented a farming field with no money, no jobs, and built an equestrian center with their bare hands. From my teachers, they became my heroines, best friends, and soul family.
I continue to be amazed by their never-ending resourcefulness, creativity, fighting spirit, as well as their softness and empathy. Since the first day we met, they have been my biggest idols, whom I still sometimes look to when wondering, ‘What would they do if they were in my situation?’
By being given the space and freedom to be really just me, nothing else and nothing more, it was the first time in my life I felt truly accepted. It is this family that helped me feel seen, and now after 15 years of collaboration and friendship, I try to shed light on their beautiful and important message.
What do you hope to achieve with this project?
Modern humans are no longer aware of the importance of the natural world, which is essential not only for survival but for existence itself. Despite this, at Terra Anima Society, they believe that we create new sacred places when we develop healthy relationships with nature and take responsibility for honoring and caring for it.
Understanding the scope of our environmental problems and seeing the world’s reaction to them made me realize that the stories we tell to make a difference don’t have to be grand, yet they must feature characters who breathe, who ache, and contain a touch of hope—tiny, invisible but unbreakable threads that connect and move lives.
I wish to learn how to strengthen people’s relationship with rural nature and wetlands through the art of storytelling. Through the Vital Impacts Environmental Photography Mentorship 2024/25, I will come closer to these camera-shy women and their community, whom I am fortunate to have called some of my longest and best friends for more than a decade. I will continue documenting their story as a tribute, spreading hope in a society where all we need is to feel like we are home.
I aim to show the world how someone’s life looks when it is dedicated to something bigger than themselves, when one’s life is full of empathy and kindness. The purpose is simple: to awaken people’s love for nature. So that we can live and let live, leaving the world behind more beautiful and richer than the one we were born into.
Were you able to apply what you learned from The VII Foundation education programs to this project, and if so, how?
Various mentors and speakers opened a new world for me full of knowledge, challenges, and opportunities. I learned about the process of long-term projects, the importance of research and writing, presenting, applying for grants, communicating with editors, taking care of copyrights, creating narratives through image series, making selections, sequencing, strategies, and techniques. Sometimes I feel that the more I know, the more I realize how much I don’t know. But it’s a world filled with curiosity and wonder, and I understand there will always be something new to learn or someone to learn from.
The education programs pushed me further and gave me the opportunity not only to learn but to think differently. Every project, series, and story I create is interwoven with lessons I’ve gained over the years from the VII Foundation. It remains a network I can always lean on, and it makes me proud to be part of the VII Community.