In an opening passage of her new book, photographer Anouk Masson Krantz admits she grew up entranced by the iconic figure of the cowboy. “As a child growing up in France, I was fascinated by the image of the American cowboy. I was intrigued with their live as they were portrayed through books and on film as irreverent, rugged frontiersmen, with lives full of romance, danger, adventure and intrigue.” Later, after moving to the United States, she was able to see cowboys firsthand and what she discovered was beyond her imagination. 
Anouk Masson Krantz, Whatever It Takes, photograph
Krantz documents, through photography, what she found in her new—and massive—coffee-table book, American Cowboys, published through Images Publishing Group. Shooting entirely with black-and-white photography, Krantz documents many facets of the cowboy, from early morning dust-ups with agitated ponies in corrals and cattle drives through rough country, to rough-and-tumble rodeos and the culture that swirls around these Western staples. She also captures pristine wilderness, from the desert Southwest to the brush-lined hills of Texas. 
Anouk Masson Krantz, Wyatt & Mazie, photograph
American Cowboys, by Anouk Masson Krantz. Published by Images Publishing Group.
The foreword to the book is written by writer, producer and director Taylor Sheridan, whose work in the Western world, including TV’s hit show Yellowstone, has spurred a revival for cowboy culture. “One should…flush any stereotypes of the cowboy from their mind. Cowboy is a gender-neutral term and knows no race or ethnicity,” Sheridan writes. “Cowboys, like horses and cattle, come in two genders and an assortment of colors. The one color all will share at the end of a long spring gather is dust-covered and sunburned.”
For more information about the book and Krantz, visit
www.imagespublishing.com. American Cowboys can be purchased at many online booksellers, including Amazon.—
Powered by Froala Editor
