Art curators in Colorado are obsessed with presenting work that reframes traditional views of Western culture through a contemporary lens. It seems that every few months there’s a new exhibit that wants us to remember that local history wasn’t all about white guys with guns, riding horses and callously conquering the inconvenient obstacles of nature — and existing populations — as they resettled the land.
The West was, and still is, a diverse place. All kinds of cowboys, soldiers, ranchers — and even artists — contributed to who we are today, and they did so with a variety of voices and viewpoints. Reminding us in no uncertain terms of that fact are shows such as “Cowboy,” recently at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, and “Tilting West,” which opens at the Arvada Center art galleries next month.
These shows are generally high quality, and they can be nostalgic even in their revisionism, but they don’t tell us anything all that surprising. Those John Wayne-style myths of the West were blown up long ago; thinking people — and really, that is who pays attention to museums and art exhibits — do not need lessons in how, or by whom, the West was won.
Much of the credit for that awareness goes to institutions like Denver’s Black American West Museum, which has been telling that more-complete tale, in one venue or another, since the early 1970s — long before it was trendy to take on the task.
What does separate these recent shows is the work itself and the way that curators organize it for viewing. The best of them — and that includes the small but dynamic “Western Cowboy: Reloaded” at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center — do so without trying too hard. They let the work speak for itself.
The group show, curated by Samantha Johnston, features six contemporary photographers who labor heartily to capture scenes of the West as it is today, but in ways that connect directly to the past. The images focus on ranch workers who actually still work, some on precision, horse-riding teams that continue to perform in rodeos that stick around year after year.
Take, for example, Rob Hammer’s “American Cowboys” series, represented in this show with five monochromatic prints that greet visitors at the front door. Hammer has been visiting ranches for six years, taking pictures of the workers and the livestock they tend to on a regular basis. His images — such as “It’s Cool to Be a Cowgirl,” which captures a female cowhand mounted on a horse and doing the sweaty job of herding cattle across a dusty landscape — present the profession in all of its gritty glory. These images do not romanticize the West as much as document how difficult, life-sucking and under-appreciated this job can be.
Complementing that work is Ian Warren’s series “The West Is,” which takes a different approach. Warren attends rodeos where crowds still come for a dose of old-school sports and Western lore. But rather than capturing the scenes overall, he zeroes in on the people at the heart of it, taking their portraits.
His subjects, the rodeo riders in photos such as “Red” and “Dust,” pose for him in their cowboy garb, inside bull pens, and staring directly at the camera. Their faces show little emotion, but plenty of determination. He stops just short of depicting them as heroic stereotypes. They are just guys, though definitely willing to take risks that most of us would prefer to avoid.
Equally complementary are scenes of contemporary Mexican rodeos captured by Juan Fuentes and Amanda Lopez. Fuentes’ shots are from the annual event at the Colorado State Fair. They are black and white and catch the participants in action. The work, documenting events in motion and from a variety of angles, are almost photojournalistic.
Lopez’s best images take a more disciplined approach, centering on the social aspects of the Mexican Rodeo Extravaganza, which happens every year at the National Western Stock Show in Denver. For photos like “Adelinas,” she pulls participants out of the action, setting them up for portraits that reveal their desire to recreate the past while making it relevant today.
Constance Jaeggi does a similar thing with her series “Escaramuza: The Poetics of Home,” which features portraits of women and girls who participate in fast and furious, precision horse drills, riding side saddle and wearing traditional Mexican attire. But we don’t see the riding in these shots, just isolated solo or small-group portraits of the participants taken on-site. Escaramuza is a team sport, but here we see its players as unique individuals. The work is accompanied by poetry written by former Texas poet laureate Angelina Sáenz.
Standing alone — and standing out — in “Western Cowboy: Reloaded” are images created by Jack Ludlam, who has been documenting land labor for 15 years now. For this exhibit, Ludlam is showing his portraits of workers and the tools they use that he creates not on the site of ranches and rodeos, but in his studio. There are images of saddles, boots and hats and what appears to be cowboys riding horses at top speeds.
Ludlam uses natural light, pristine white backdrops and medium-format film in his work, and his shots take on the personality of commercial product photography, showing off the details, utility and design of the objects themselves. There is a bit of magic in his work, studio trickery, though it is all in service of elevating ordinary tools of the trade into something worthy of deep consideration.
Like the work of the five other photographers here, these shots reference the Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico of old, but show that it remains vibrant today. Maybe that happens on a smaller scale than it used to, and maybe it is sustained as much by nostalgia as it is by a real need for cowhands in an era of corporate agriculture.
But the show does succeed in updating the stereotype, without pandering, and with the genuine authenticity that only photography can produce. In the right hands, delivered with an attitude that respects both the subjects and gallery visitors, this frantic exploration of cowboys and the West by art galleries can still have something to say.
IF YOU GO
“Western Cowboy: Reloaded” continues through June 20 at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center, 1200 Lincoln St. It’s free. Info: 303-837-1341 or cpacphoto.org.
