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The Last Cowboy:
Photographs by Adam Jahiel
March 2 - November 7, 2002
For more than a decade, Adam Jahiel has been on a quest to photograph the working cowboys of the American West, particularly of the Great Basin region in Nevada, Oregon, and Idaho. Cowboys of the Great Basin, perhaps one of the most inhospitable regions of the West, remain one of the last authentic American breeds, bypassed by technology and time. "The Last Cowboy," an exhibition of 25 of Jahiel's luminous and evocative platinum prints that explored this enduring American icon, was presented at the National Heritage Museum, March 2 through October 14, 2002. The exhibition was supported by a generous donation from David Freese of Peabody, Massachusetts.
Living for several months at a time among the same cowboys for more than ten years, Jahiel's work seeks to reflect the three virtues valued above all else in cowboy life--talent, knowledge and skill. Said Jahiel, "The cowboys have a respect for their traditional craft that makes cowboying, in some cases, an art form. I not only respect that, I try to emulate it in my work." The cowboys pictured in Jahiel's work, like in the image "Roundup," were not remade into Hollywood images, but presented with an authenticity that reflects the spirit of the best in the tradition.
Most Americans do not know the modern cowboy, as their craft has been reduced to advertising and movie cliches. It is an image that Jahiel rejects out of hand. Instead, he seeks the quiet, at times heroic, action of ordinary, everyday cowboy life. Work that is almost photojournalistic, Jahiel's pictures cut through the stereotypes with an intimate and intoxicating directness. In the image "In the Cooktent," it is easy to imagine the smell of the rain-stained canvas co-mingling with a mixture of coffee, cigarettes, and cooking grease. Legendary roper John Adamson is caught about to loop a calf amid a swirl of dry, white alkali that blows through the high desert in summer. Said Jahiel, "Though not exactly old, John has been around forever. Born in the saddle. One of those cowboys every other cowboy has known, worked with, or at least heard of. I've seen him throw some impossible loops over the years, and I've never seen him miss."
Adam Jahiel began his career in Hollywood, where he photographed celebrities, movies, commercial advertising campaigns, and even the underwater wreck of the Titanic. He worked in exotic locations ranging from Tunisia to Bali. Even in far-flung locales, Jahiel longed to work on his "personal project"--photographing rodeos, the cowboys of the Great Basin, cattle, and horses. "To me, nothing matches the feeling you get driving for hours on an isolated trail, seeing no one. Or the smell of kerosene and coffee at three in the morning at a cow camp," said Jahiel. "Taking the photographs is just part of the process." He now lives with his wife and son in Story, Wyoming.
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