“They live simple lives, their work pays little, it’s dirty and hard – and yet cowboys are consistently some of the happiest people I’ve met,” says renowned photographer Anouk Krantz, who has just traveled through North and South America and capturing contemporary farmers for her incredible new coffee table photo book.
Frontier: Cowboys of the Americas (by Picture publishing), is full of beautiful, unposed photos of people who she tells MailOnline Travel are ‘the very living, breathing symbol of freedom and independence’.
Anouk continues: ‘On these foreign frontiers I put my trust in the hands of local cowboys. We didn’t speak the same language, and yet it felt like we immediately had an unspoken mutual respect and bond. These are moments I will never forget. Humanity at its best.’
Frontier follows Anouk’s 2019 photo book, West: The American Cowboyand 2021 American Cowboysboth in the States.
Anouk adds: ‘It was a revelation to learn about this great, progressive culture loosely unified across the Americas, which after generations continues to reflect the same basic principles, virtues and customs with unwavering pride. The essence and spirit of the American West is in fact deeply rooted in all of them.
‘But my work is not only about the cowboy. It is an ongoing reflection on who we have become as a collective species on Earth, as we draw inspiration from a culture that has remained steadfast and true to their way of life, values and heritage for 150 years.’
Here are some of Anouk’s favorite photos from Frontier…
Anouk became fascinated by cowboys growing up in France. She says: ‘I was intrigued with their lives as they were portrayed in books and on film as irreverent, rugged frontiersmen, with lives full of romance, danger, adventure and intrigue.’ The above photo was taken in the USA
As an adult, Anouk moved to New York and began traveling in the US, where the photo above was taken. The photographer explored the cowboy culture she became a big fan of as a child, revealing: ‘Whether I found myself in Texas, Kansas or neighboring states, people smiled, men tipped their hats, nodded to strangers and exchanged friendly hellos’
Anouk was amazed at how the cowboys’ thriving culture, even after many generations, ‘continues to reflect the same basic principles, virtues and customs with unwavering pride. The essence and spirit of the American West is in fact deeply rooted in all of them.’ The photo above, titled Marlboro, was taken in the USA
Anouk says: ‘(The cowboys’) daily lives, races, landscape, climate, language, tools, equipment and cultures each have their own nuances and yet all belong to a unique tapestry of heritage, which represents the eternal hope, soul and optimism preserve. which comes with living in freedom and independence.’ The photo above, titled ‘Merica, was taken in the United States
While Anouk says most people in the modern world are ‘constantly on the move’, cowboys have ‘firm beliefs that a noble life can be achieved if it is based on their values of hard work, self-reliance, humility and sacrifice to support them . families and communities’. This is why she chose to travel across the Americas to photograph them and take the above photo in the US
The Frontier: Cowboys of the Americas project was the first time Anouk went to South America to document contemporary farmers. The photo above was taken in Uruguay and is unposed for ‘a more natural and authentic picture’. Anouk explains: ‘I try to give (the cowboys) space so they can be themselves and as soon as they realize my process, they forget I’m even there’
One of Anouk’s favorite moments was in Brazil’s Pantanal, the largest tropical wetland in the world, where the Pantaneiros have lived since the 1700s. Anouk met some of these Brazilian cowboys, including the one above, and rode with them through chest-high waters and tropical forests. ‘It was very hot and humid. Caymans floated just a few feet from my legs,’ she recalls
At first, Anouk says she found it ‘difficult’ to integrate with the farmers, who are ‘private and skeptical of strangers’. However, the cowboy friends she had previously made in the States slowly introduced her to others, including ranchers in Mexico, above. “In the end, it all came together in the best way,” she adds
Above is a photo taken in Uruguay, where Spanish is mainly spoken. Anouk was amazed at how she and the cowboys on these foreign frontiers ‘immediately had an unspoken mutual respect and bond’, even though they didn’t speak the same language
While on her travels through South America, Anouk saw gauchos riding barefoot through ‘the endless emerald green, tall grasses of the Pampas of Argentina’. In keeping with tradition, these gauchos carry a large knife on their belt and drink a bitter, caffeinated tea called mate, instead of coffee
A fourth generation gaucho in Uruguay (where the photo above was taken) named Colacho Lanfranco told Anouk how his family first settled there in 1880, revealing: ‘One hundred and forty-four years later living and working us on these lands. , with the same values as the first generations’
Anouk traveled to Guatemala, pictured above, for Frontier. ‘The world is now turning to the cowboy as inspiration like never before,’ she says. ‘To revisit them in the 21st century is to hold a mirror up to ourselves to realize how fast and how far our own mainstream culture has gone’
Frontier: Cowboys of the Americas is out now and published by Images Publishing. It is available from Amazon for £53.82/$85
