As pet projects go, photographing highly decorated sacred cows across rural India would appear to be far removed from the fast-moving world of commercial fashion photography in Milan, Toni Meneguzzo’s milieu for the past 30 years. But the animals’ slender legs, wide eyes and elegant postures aren’t entirely unrelated to fashion’s obsession with beauty. “In a way,” says Meneguzzo, “it’s like shooting models. I’m still looking for a good composition: four legs on show, a good profile, perhaps one hoof slightly forward, the head turned. Cows, like fashion models, have such serene elegance.” Meneguzzo came across his first decorated cow while photographing the spiritual city of Auroville in Tamil Nadu, south-east India, during Pongal, a four-day harvest festival. →

Photograph: Toni Meneguzzo