Last of a Breed: Working with Cowboys

Collects Schreiber's iconic 'cowboy' photography series A romanticised yet gripping depiction of archetypal masculinity and homoeroticism Introduction by Louis L'Amour Our idea of what a cowboy looks like is shaped by many influences: countless Hollywood movies, American country music, the famous Marlboro commercials and, of course, Brokeback Mountain. What all these images have in common is that they are mostly fictitious, establishing a complex mythology around the cowboy aesthetic. Similarly, Martin Schreiber does not claim to depict reality in his photographs. His works mix romantic, idealised images of a pristine landscape with the toils of hard labour, and blend the smell of testosterone with a sultry homoeroticism. And yet his photographs are more truthful, closer to reality than many others. Of course, Schreiber took his pictures more than 30 years ago, long before the debate about male role models began to take hold. This is what makes them so appealing. For more than a year, Schreiber roamed the vast landscapes of Texas, camera in hand, visiting cattle farms and rodeo shows and portraying cowboys at work, in their leisure time, in the saddle and on the couch. 74 b/w