The photographer did not create the avatar, I did... he just took a picture of me there.

Again, the girl you see in those photos is my "avatar" (or persona, or character) that is visible when I am visiting the online virtual world called Second Life (learn more at their website: secondlife.com ).

When you download second life's software on to your computer, and start it up, you are joining thousands of other people in that same virtual space, from all around the world. It's kind of like a huge chat room environment, with multiple levels / 3D places to explore. (The horses were one of the objects in that particular place I happened to be exploring... there are countless places, all of them look quite unique).

When you are visiting Second Life, you are represented as an avatar. You can modify that avatar as much as you want, to look any way you could possibly imagine. I have modified my avatar myself (some people buy shapes and skins to modify their avatar that way instead, I'm more of a do-it-yourself kinda girl).

Then I purchased "virtual clothes" (the native american outfit) specifically for that story. If you look at my blog, you will see that this native american outfit is just one of hundreds of stories I've written... and in each story, I dress up my avatar differently: http://virtualneko.com

So... I modified my avatar, I found a location with teepees and horses, and I stood there. Then my friend who was visiting the same virtual place with me, took that photo. He brought it into photoshop on his computer, and "tinted" it to create that old fashioned photo effect.

I hope this answers all your questions.