This is a book of cowboy photography, produced by John McQuarrie, who tells us in his introduction that his book is the result of traveling all around New Mexico talking to ranchers and photographing them and their cowboys at work. Though McQuarrie is not a westerner, he clearly loves his subject matter and speaks glowingly of the men whose images he's captured on film. His 240+ color photographs cover a wide range of subjects besides working with cattle, including snow and frost, children, cowboy gear, Spanish colonial churches, pickup trucks and trailers, rodeo, landscapes, a cowboy wedding, and bringing in a Christmas tree cowboy-style. The photographs are organized according to the seasons, starting with winter, and they range in size up to full double-page spreads. Interspersed are short essays by cowboy humorist Lee Pitts, praising cowboy values in his down-home way, and other writers. The most interesting is a reprint of an article from High Country News about rancher Sid Goodloe, who over a period of 41 years restored a broken down ranch using principles of sound ecology. There's also a foreword by the late cowboy actor and stunt man, Richard Farnsworth. This book easily belongs on any shelf of Southwestern photography. Readers interested in rehabilitating land will also appreciate Texas writer John Graves' "Hard Scrabble." For more photographs of New Mexico ranchers, look for Arnold Vigil's "Enduring Cowboys."
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