Working Cowboys

Douglas Kent Hall has a way of capturing the work and the manner of real cowboys that makes this book both a terrific photo album and a well-written description of these men and the world they work in. Hall snaps many shots of branding, roping, bronc riding, and working cattle, but the best photos are the full-length portrait shots of cowboys standing or leaning against a door frame or fence, having their pictures taken. They look into the camera, with a serious expression, portraying visually the stoic-romantic, cowboy-up way they are recorded in the words of Hall's text.Hall sees them and describes them in the way they see themselves. Hard-working, often silent, resigned to the conditions of an occupation that pays little but gives them pride, self-reliance, and a belief that they stand for a way of life superior to any other. They are both fiercely independent individuals and members of a fraternity with a strict code of behavior and values. Given the opportunity, they may complain about less-than-perfect conditions of employment, and they're ambivalent about the modernization of ranching, yearning for the good old days before attempts to mechanize the business of raising and working cattle changed the nature of the work they love. Hall has a great eye for detail both in his images and in his text. He wants you to see the way cowboys individualize and put their own stamp on the universal uniform of hat, boots, jeans, and shirt. By putting photos of young and old cowboys together on the page, he also wants you to see the toll that this kind of work takes on their bodies and physical features. His descriptions in prose are also rich with details as he describes the predawn rituals of saddling up, or the ambiance of sitting in front of a fire in a camp house without electricity, or a long ride over rough rangeland in a pickup, which eventually gets stuck. He also seems to have recorded and transcribed his interviews with cowboys, because the text is realistically rich with their turns of phrase and their long ramblings on various subjects. The author has considerable credits, including the scripting of "The Great American Cowboy," a documentary which won an Academy Award in 1974. As of this writing, this wonderful book is out of print. If you can find a copy, get one and hang onto it. It's a gem. For a similar, though less handsome book of photography and interviews, there's Darrell Arnold's "The Cowboy Kind."