cowboy culture western photography · pdf filedocuments nearly two decades of great basin...

150 WESTERN HORSEMAN | MARCH 2007

Cowboy Culture

Rancho Grande, Nevada. Bobby Lynn works with Custer, who issaddled for the first time. He does not stay saddled for long.

western photography

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MARCH 2007 | WESTERN HORSEMAN 151

I N S E A R C H O F T H E

LASTCOWBOY

Seventeen years ago, photographer AdamJahiel embarked on a mission to documentbuckaroo life. Thousands of images later,

he says he’s still discovering the secrets ofone of America’s most unique cultures.

STORY BY RYAN THOMAS BELLPHOTOGRAPHS BY ADAM JAHIEL

THE TERM “DAYBREAK” bearsa loose definition on a buckaroooutfit in the Great Basin. Forthe cook, it comes around 3

a.m., when he rises to fire the stove andmake breakfast. Next to rise is the horsewrangler,who saddles in the dark and ridesinto the black desert to jingle the cavvy.While he’s away, the rest of the crew stirs.No reveille of trumpets sounds, just the hissof propane lanterns as they’re lit one by one.

The cowboys bide their time, waitingfor the lanterns’heat to warm the air insidethe canvas tent walls. Finally, they dressand emerge, carrying lanterns in one handand cigarettes in the other. Gathered inthe cook tent, the crew is somber, few ofthem looking up from cups of coffee longenough to make small talk. Metal forksplow eggs across plastic plates as they waitfor the sound of the wrangler and thesaddle herd’s arrival.

The men pay little attention to photographer Adam Jahiel, who waits on the periphery.

Armed with a medium-format camera,Jahiel has created a body of work thatdocuments nearly two decades of GreatBasin ranching. He calls it “The LastCowboy Project.” Every summer since1989, Jahiel has traveled parts of Idaho,Nevada and Oregon, capturing imagesof the region’s cowboys, landscapes andhistoric ranches.

Today, his photographs number in thethousands and include portraits of bucka-roos, horse roundups, summer brand-ings and tent camps in the middle ofwide-open country. The pictures evokea feeling of permanence for the buckarooculture, seemingly rooting it to the soillike sagebrush.

Cookhouse InspirationThe Last Cowboy Project was born on asummer day in 1989, when Jahiel—thenworking for The Sacramento Bee—wassent to a ranch on the California-Nevadaborder to shoot photographs of the famedrodeo bull Skoal’s Pacific Bell.

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“After we drove around the ranchshooting photos of the bull, we ended upback at the kitchen for a cup of coffee,”Jahiel remembers.“I looked around insidethe cookhouse and saw how stark andpared-down everything was. There wasthe obligatory table with red-and-whitecheckerboard tablecloth and a con-glomeration of ketchup, mustard, Tabascoand toothpicks. The walls were white-washed wood, and there wasabsolutely nothing fancy aboutit. In the other room, there wasa couch that had been destinedfor the dump years before.Cowboy gear was everywhereand someone had drawn acrude bucking-horse illustra-tion that hung on the wall.”

Jahiel felt like he’d landedin a picture by Walker Evans,one of his photographer heroes.During the Great Depression,Evans documented 1930s ruralAmerica for the Farm Secu-rity Administration (FSA).

“There was somethingincredibly compelling aboutthose FSA images,” Jahiel says.“They’re technically perfect,and the subject matter had realhistorical importance. It wasn’tjust eye candy. They were his-torical documents.”

Jahiel asked the ranch ownersfor permission to return andshoot photographs on his owntime. They agreed and pro-vided him with a letter giving him access to the many ranches they ownedacross Nevada.

“The first ranch where I spent signif-icant time was the IL in northern Nevada,”Jahiel remembers. “I arrived and begantaking photographs, even though I reallydidn’t know what I was doing. I kept myeyes open and mouth shut. I didn’t wantto miss anything and just tried to stay outof the way as much as possible.

“After about 10 days of shooting, Ithanked the cow boss, told him I’d gottenthe pictures I needed and that I’d be leavingthat morning. All he said was, ‘Okay,’then rode off on his horse to go back to work.”

The departure felt anticlimactic, andas Jahiel packed up his gear, he thoughtabout how difficult it might be to enterthe closed-off world of the Great Basinbuckaroo. Then, the cow boss rode backto Jahiel and said,“If you want to do anymore shooting on any other ranches aroundhere, you can use me as a reference.”

Jahiel had a foot inside the door.“As a rule, these guys are poker-faced

and men of few words,” Jahiel observes.“I had no idea where I stood with them.So, when the cow boss said that, it wasone of the greatest honors I’ve ever received.That set everything in motion.”

Wall ArtAs a photographer, Jahiel is drawn tomoments that go beyond shots worthyof Marlboro ads. He divides his LastCowboy images into two categories:“hero”photographs and “documentary” shots.

His hero photographs are those thatcommand attention and make for pop-ular wall art. One such shot, one Jahielcalls Rancho Grande, depicts a rearinghorse looming larger than life over a

cowboy whose face is obscured by theshadow of the corral fence. The photo ispacked with action and dramatic con-trasts between clouds, shadows and light.Jahiel sees in it a statement about man’srelationship to the natural world.

Jahiel’s documentary photographs aretaken from everyday life and give theviewer an intimate feel for buckaroo cul-ture. They’re less likely to hang above a

fireplace, but Jahiel appreci-ates such images for their “souland grit.”

“So much of the materialI’m interested in takes placebefore and after work,”he says.“Guys get up and do theirthing, take off for the day’swork, and when they get back,they work on their saddles,read, fix gear, snooze and tellstories. Really, it’s a miraclesuch a style of life exists in thisday and age.”

Naptime is an unassumingJahiel documentary photo-graph that makes up in story-telling what it lacks in action.Taken during an afternoonbranding on Nevada’s TSRanch, Jahiel remembers howthe photograph unfolded.

“There were horrendousnumbers of cattle to brand,and it was one of these daysthat just seem to go on and on.Everyone was dead tired,” heexplains.“In the background

of the picture you see a couple of guysworking. There’s an older kid full of energyand spinning around with his arms andlegs in motion. Then, there are a coupleguys standing around checking stuff out.One man, sitting with his back to you,has a big triangle-shaped sweat stain acrosshis shirt. And, in the foreground, there’sa young kid, maybe 6 years old, who’scrashed out, asleep. He has an old man’shat on, his face is dirty, and he clearlycouldn’t take it anymore.

“I saw the scene and realized how manyincredible storylines were being told. It’ssuch a great one, but it isn’t a flashy pho-tograph that anybody will ever buy tohang on a wall.”

Naptime, TS Ranch, Nevada.

}{ “I saw the scene and realized how many incredible storylines were being told.”

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First Light, IL Ranch,Nevada. The sun isthe last one up on

this outfit. Thecowboys have alreadyhad their coffee andwrangled the horses.

Louie Hawkins, thejigger boss, leads his

horse off to saddle upfor the day’s work.

Fritz and Snooks, TS Ranch, Nevada.Fritz Merek and his dog, Snooks,head out for a dayof fixing fence.



Riley Cleaver, IL Ranch, Nevada. “I had just arrived at cow camp onthe IL,” Jahiel says. “Some of the cowboys were playing cards in the

cookhouse, waiting out the storm. The cowboys thought I wouldn’t getany shots that day, but I took this portrait, one of my favorites.”



Cowboy PortraitsAny photographer who hopes to take aportrait of the notoriously stone-facedbuckaroo has his work cut out for him.One of Jahiel’s greatest challenges hasbeen to blend into the woodwork andput his subjects at ease so they act natu-rally in front of the camera. The key tohis success has been returning to the sameranches through the years, eventuallyearning the cowboys’ trust.

“Sticking with something for morethan 15 years will get you a different feelthan if you just go once and leave,” Jahielobserves. “I like returning tovisit these guys, and they openup to me as a result.”

Jahiel discovered that whenhe arrived at an unfamiliarranch, a reference from acowboy down the road wasworth gold.

“From one ranch to the next,it’s such a small world,”he says.“The more time you spend,the more guys you meet,and the more you fit in andlearn the ropes. You learn when to disappear and whento reappear.”

A portrait photographer’sgoal is to catch a subject in amoment when his nature isunaffected by the presence ofa camera. Sometimes, Jahielhas succeeded by catching hissubjects unaware. Portraitphotographs like Riley Cleaver have anintimate quality, putting the viewer along-side the cowboys in a cook tent orbunkhouse. For other photographs, Jahielused a technique he learned working withportrait photographer Arnold Newman,whose images of people like PresidentJohn F. Kennedy and the composer IgorStravinsky are world-famous.

“He was a crusty old guy,”Jahiel remem-bers of the late Newman.“He’d fuss aroundwith his lights for what seemed like for-ever. The people he was photographingwere excited to get their picture taken,but they’d nearly fall asleep by the timeArnold was ready.

“I realized he was doing it on purpose.As he bored his subjects to death, he’d

scope them out to observe their nature.Little by little, as you relax, you becomemore real.

“I’m always watching people, how theysit, their body language.When I told thesecowboys I was going to take a picture,immediately they’d stiffen up. So, I wouldguide them back to sitting the way theywere when they were acting naturally.”

At Shutter SpeedJahiel is a cowboy and horseman at heart.Horses graze outside the window of hisWyoming studio, and working gear—

ropes and bits—intermingle with his end-less collection of photographic equip-ment. It’s understandable, then, why Jahieldraws a parallel between the professionsof buckaroo and photographer. He seesin both a need for skilled expertise and“gut” instincts, whether it’s throwing adifficult loop or snapping a technicallyperfect picture.

“Any kind of art form—writing, pho-tography, roping, saddlemaking—requiresso many great things to come together,”says Jahiel.

That revelation came to him during thesummer of 2006, when he visited a cowcamp on Nevada’s Spanish Ranch.One day,he overheard the cowboys discussing aranch roping they’d attended in Elko,Nevada.

“They described one particular cowboy’srope throw in an incredible way, as ifthey’d watched it in slow motion,” herecalls. “Listening to them, you couldalmost feel the position of the cowboy’shand and wrist, how the rope slowlyuncoiled, the shape of the wave it madeas it went through the air, and the way itlanded so the calf stepped into it.”

Jahiel recognized in their conversationa concept he was used to discussing as aphotography teacher, the idea of a “sliceof life.” In theory, Jahiel thinks of a pho-tograph as a frozen moment in time that

enables the viewer to see detailsthat aren’t visible with thenaked eye. The cowboys, ineffect, were discussing a “sliceof life” taken during the Elkoranch rodeo,a moment printedto memory and visible withoutthe need of a camera.

Of all the pictures in TheLast Cowboy collection,Roping a Cloud stands out asJahiel’s masterpiece. He tookit one predawn morning at acow camp on the IL Ranch.The wrangler had corralledthe saddle herd, and theoutfit’s top roper was method-ically roping out the day’smounts.

“The scene was pregnantwith possibilities,” Jahielremembers. “There are a lotof patterns that occur from

the repetition of cowboy work, like roping,branding and herding. You know what’sgoing to happen, so a photographer canhave a leg up on things and be prepared.I recognized the pattern of the wrangleras he’d step forward, throw the rope andcatch horse after horse.”

The sun was not yet up, and there wasnext to no light available. Jahiel lookedthrough the viewfinder and saw onlyblack. Nonetheless, he adjusted thecamera’s settings to capture as muchlight as possible, training the lens onthe center of the rope corral. He reliedon timing alone to take photo after photo,not knowing what image he was cap-turing. It wasn’t until a couple of weekslater, when Jahiel returned to his

Roping a Cloud, IL Ranch, Nevada.


Wyoming studio and developed his film,that he found out whether or not he wassuccessful.

“There was one picture that I could seefrom a mile away was ‘the one,’” Jahielrecalls.“The rope happened to be encir-cling a solitary cloud in the backgroundsky. Did I sit there and wait for the wran-gler’s rope to go around the cloud? Ofcourse not. I didn’t even realize the cloudwas there. That’s the magic of photog-raphy.You prepare yourself the best youcan, then trust the luck factor.”

The Anonymous BuckarooIn a deserted bunkhouse on southeasternOregon’s ZX Ranch, Jahiel stumbledacross an artifact of cowboy archeology,a buckaroo’s journal. The author’s entrieswere short, sometimes cryptic and oftencomical. One thing about the diary,though, was particularly intriguing: Itwas written graffiti-like on the walls ofthe bunkhouse in a barely legible hand-written cursive, as if the buckaroo werea prison inmate marking time on his cell wall.

The entries began at ceiling height,

with straight-lined sentences thatdescended into columnar disarray atwaist-level. He recorded livestock move-ments, wrote about the events of dailylife, and concluded each entry with acomment about the weather.

Like the musings of that disappearedcowboy in the abandoned bunkhouse,Jahiel has observed firsthand that theranching culture of the Great Basin isfading. During his nearly two decades inthe region, he’s witnessed cowboys get-ting older, retiring and passing away.Younger cowboys have become scarce,drawn away from the ranchhand life byeconomic, political and social pressures.The ranches themselves are even disap-pearing, sold to owners who don’t require cow camps or the buckaroos whotend them.

“The ‘disappearing cowboy’ is a hugecliché,”Jahiel admits.“However, no matterhow much you think you’re living in the‘old days,’ you’re not. That part of thecountry [the Great Basin] is a slice of thepast that’s practically disappeared. Thosecowboys live in camps, tents and teepees.They have camp cooks, maybe a radio,even if they can’t pick up a signal. Frommorning to night, they’re camped outsomewhere in the desert, miles from civ-ilization. Because of that, they have torely on what bare necessities they have.

“Visually, it’s fascinating to see a bunch of teepees out there in the middleof nowhere, the makeshift corrals theyput up and the ancient buildings leftbehind that mark the old locations offormer camps.”

It’s understandable why Jahiel con-siders a deserted, graffiti-walled bunkhousean archeological treasure.Walls get paintedover or, worse, come down altogetherwhen the building crumbles. Likewise,the Great Basin buckaroo is himself any-thing but a permanent fixture. In the end,windblown sagebrush will outlast him.But, through Jahiel’s work, he’s guaran-teed a spot in history and some form ofcowboy afterlife.

Ryan Thomas Bell is writing a memoirabout his years spent working as acowboy among the gauchos of Argentina.He lives in southwestern Montana. To seemore of Adam Jahiel’s photography, visitadamjahiel.com. Send comments on thisarticle to [email protected].

Bunkhouse #1, Stateline Camp, Spanish Ranch, Nevada.


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10-6 Rode in lower reser-voir. 110 pairs. Rained allafternoon. — Cold.

10-7 Bosses late for work.Being the loyal, dedicated,hardworking crew, wewent on with work.Shipped 80 pair. For LittleCoyote moved 204 cowsand 22 bulls from B.Coyote to Upper Res. Miketook sick with YellowBelly. Clayton’s birthday.— Cold, windy.

10-8 Gathered Thompsoninto Big Coyote. 91 cows 4 bulls. SOBs. The wholebunch was. — Nice.



The Escapee, StatelineCamp, Spanish Ranch,Nevada. Fritz Whitlock

heads off a wayward horseand guides it back to the

remuda, which has settledinto a rope corral.

His Turn to Cook, SquawValley, Spanish Ranch,Nevada. Camped in thedesert, the cowboys taketurns filling in for anabsent cook. On this day,cowboy Brian Morris getsthe honor and, as he peelspotatoes, wishes he werehorseback instead.


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