LIFE
FORCE
The magazine of the photo-essay
June 2017 back issue
The Last Cowboy
by Adam Jahiel
“A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine.  Fabulous!” Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
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There is something final about photography. A photograph has the ability to capture a moment that is gone forever. Nothing exists that can make that moment come back again. No other tool can capture these moment before they vanish completely. The American West is a place where things vanish. Civilization passes through repeatedly, stops for a short time, and then mostly moves on. In between, the land and the people that remain slowly reassert themselves. I do whatever I can to make my pictures good, without crossing the line where I impose my personality on them. For me, most great pictures are made by photographers who have, at least for the moment, abandoned their own identity. To me, all great photographs are free from arrogance. The viewer should see the subject, not a reflection of the photographer.
I’m still drifting around the American West, looking for the land that time forgot. It still exists, but is getting harder and harder to find. Twenty-five years ago, I took a hard look a world that was new to me.  I could sense that it was in the process of vanishing. And I knew that I wanted to freeze some moments in time. Admittedly, the concept of the ‘Vanishing West’ has become a huge cliché; but it is also by no means untrue.
A fresh horse.
Boot and spur.
Bunkhouse.
Cool water.
Desert solitaire.
Fish Creek.
Fritz and Snooks.
His turn to cook.
Horse shadows.
Morning, TS Ranch.
Racing the clouds.
Rancho Grande.
Remuda.
Remuda.
Remuda Spanish Ranch.
Roping TS Ranch.
The wait.