jim krantz

This entry represents the most recent installment in my decades-long photographic exploration of America’s most enduring icon, the cowboy. Rugged and romantic, the figure of the cowboy has come to symbolize the American ideals of self-reliance and individualism—and the value we as a nation place in mastering one’s own destiny. Cowboys—and the wilderness they call their workplace—represent our connection to nature, the awe we reserve for its violence and beauty.

In photographing this subject matter over many years, I’ve witnessed immense changes in the life and landscape of the cowboy. Not only has environmental disregard and urban development led to the deterioration of the ecology of the west, the cowboy’s vocation itself is in jeopardy, as technology threatens to eliminate the need for workers.

My call has been to capture this part of America’s legacy before it becomes obsolete—and to do so in a way that breaks from the visual clichés and conventions usually applied to cowboy imagery.
    
Working as a photographer as well as a live-action director, I used a RED Camera and the Canon EOS 5D during a large-scale shoot in the Colorado mountains. The leading-edge technology allowed me to shoot photographs, capture live-action footage and, later, pull stills from the RED Camera motion footage.

But the technology also allowed me to complete my artistic intention: To bring the cowboy into the edgy, expressive, energetic aesthetic of contemporary America. As an artist, it’s my belief that a contemporary point of view is the most appropriate perspective in this case. Because even though the icon of the cowboy is rooted in American history, that story is still very much being written.