About the image

I met “Boot,” as he called himself, on a working ranch in Meadview, Arizona, located just west of the Grand Canyon. He had a great, natural rugged cowboy personality and he kindly let me make a few portraits of him, this being the first. I wanted to tell his story just the way I saw him – cool, calm, and gazing towards the horizon. The gear setup was super simple, given that I was on vacation and didn’t bring much gear. It’s a mix of ambient light with a hand-held Nikon SB-something flash to camera left, held by our nanny who I quickly recruited for the job. Given the subject and timeless nature of the cowboy and scene, it felt natural to convert the shot to black-and-white.