Every working cowboy was once this child — perched on a fence rail in an oversized hat and fringed chaps, watching the real work happening in the corral with an intensity of attention that is the first and most essential form of learning. Future Cowboy is one of the most immediately and universally beloved images in the western collection: a small child in full cowboy gear climbing the log corral fence, facing away from the camera, wholly absorbed in the scene before him — the adult cowboys working with horses in the soft focus middle distance, the whole world of the working ranch spread out before him like a promise and a curriculum simultaneously. The hat is slightly too large, the chaps are sized for someone who has not quite grown into them yet, and the small boots hooked on the fence rail carry the same seriousness of purpose as any working cowboy's gear — because to this child, this is not dress-up. This is preparation. The black and white palette gives the image a timeless quality that suits its subject perfectly — this scene has been repeating itself on working ranches for as long as there have been working ranches and working cowboys, the next generation watching and absorbing and waiting for the moment when the fence rail gives way to the saddle. The log corral fence fills the foreground with beautiful organic texture, the soft focus background giving the adult cowboys and horses a slightly dreamlike quality — the world the child is watching and already half-inhabiting in imagination. There is humor here, and tenderness, and something genuinely moving about the completeness of the child's absorption — the outside world does not exist for him right now, only the horses and the cowboys and the work he has already decided will one day be his. A natural companion to The Gather — Western Fine Art Print, Reading the Herd — Western Ranch Fine Art Print, Partners — Western Fine Art Print, and The Silent Bond — Western Fine Art Print, Future Cowboy stands as the most warmly human and emotionally accessible image in the entire western collection — the one that makes every viewer smile and then feel something deeper than the smile. Available as a limited edition of 50 worldwide on ChromaLuxe Metal, Lumachrome HD TruLife Acrylic, or DuraPlaq® FloatPlaqs.

Photo © copyright by Tamara Gooch.

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