The lives of these horsewomen were filled with ambiguity and dare-devilry, sex and sexism, glamor and skill.

In the late summer of 1866, a black equestrian stuntwoman made her Paris debut and galvanized the city. She was known only as “Sarah the African.”

Selika Lazevski exists in six photographs and nowhere else. She was a black Amazon in Belle Epoque Paris, a horsewoman without a horse.

  Selika Lazevski exists in six black-and-white photographs and nowhere else. I first saw her when those six studio portraits appeared on Tumblr in 2012. They quickly spread around the Internet as readers asked, Who is she? But although I’ve…