Over the past 5 years I’ve had the great fortune to spend time with working cowboys (men and women) all across the American West. I still find it hard to overstate how different they are from the rest of earth’s population. This journey started on family ranches and eventually led me to historic properties larger than the entire state of Delaware. Unless you’ve been there yourself, it’s almost impossible to describe. That’s why it’s become my mission to take viewers behind the scenes of a profession that has remained largely unchanged for the past 100 years. Their culture is built on deep respect for history, personal pride in one’s abilities, and a love for animals and the land.
From everything I’ve gathered, the general public is drastically misconstrued about what a cowboy is and does. Despite being one of America’s greatest icons, most people see them only as movie characters and never think twice about the beef they pick up at the supermarket. A few years ago I was eating the continental breakfast at a shitty motel somewhere in the Midwest. The local news was the only noise in an otherwise lifeless room. After finishing her daily drivel, the newscaster blurted out, “You are not going to believe what I’ve got for you today… a real life cowboy!!!” She said it like he was an alien who had just landed among us, and maybe it’s not entirely her fault—cowboys don’t exactly coexist with the rest of the world. They live hours from modern towns and practically speak their own language with a vocabulary that changes by region. They use alluring words you’ve never heard before like latigo, concho, and tapaderos. Listening to them talk makes you wonder if they are even from the same country, so you’re playing catch up before the work even begins, which always starts far before the sun bothers to show itself.
After breakfast is done, they head out on horseback to work cattle in vast remote pastures and might not come back until it’s dark again, no matter the weather. 365 days a year the work needs to get done. At any point they could be ten miles from headquarters doctoring sick cattle during a blistering hot Texas summer. Or delivering calves in Montana on nights so cold the newborn would die if not cared for immediately. From an outsider's perspective it might just seem like grunt work, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Cattle don’t raise themselves and then magically show up on your grill as hamburgers. Cowboys know the nature of cattle and how to raise them the right way. It’s a delicate science—elevated to art by some. There is so much that can go wrong when working with wild 1,300-pound animals. It’s one of the most dangerous and physically demanding jobs in the country, but to them it’s a way of life that just happens to come with a paycheck.
Even if money were no object, nothing would change. They’d still wake up every day with a passion to work their ass off so that the world can stay fed. That’s why this work deserves to be documented. Authentic cowboy photography isn’t about staging models or costumes—it’s about showing the real men and women who keep this tradition alive.
If you’re a brand, agency, or publication looking to bring authentic Western storytelling into your campaign, I’d love to collaborate!
If you’re a photography or art collector looking for a new piece of wall art to decorate your home, office, or commercial space, please get in touch. All of my cowboy photography is available as fine art prints in varying sizes, as well as for editorial and commercial licensing. rob@robhammerphotography.com