Wouter Deruytter: Cowboy Code

Rating:
Summary: SMALL TOWN RODEO
Review: Interesting, isn't it, that it took a Belgian photographer to create a book filled with exquisite black and white images of the American West specifically symbolized by the small town rodeo cowboy. I was immediately reminded of John Huston's brilliant movie, THE MISFITS in which, Montgomery Clift who could easily have been playing one of these very cowboys, calls his home to sadly tell his family that he has failed, once again, to win a prize or top money. A desperately sad scene, played brilliantly by Clift, written by none other than Arthur Miller.

Arena Editions has produced a handsome volume for Wouter Deruytter's magnificent pictures in which the horses, riders, clouds, mesas and mountains look as if they come directly from a John Ford western starring John Wayne. Here we see young men preparing themselves for tests as grueling as chivalric games from the Middle Ages.

I do not usually like alot of text accompanying books of photographs: I prefer to let the images speak for themselves. That said, John Wood's wonderful essay "Youthful Elegance and the Masks of Destiny" helps a city slicker like myself understand exactly what Deruytter's photographs are saying.

Some of my favorites include a little boy sitting astride a metal barrel pretending that the barrel is his first rodeo horse, the same boy practicing wrapping tape around his wrist as his older mentor/idol/friend does the same, a pen filled with black, brown, white horses looking as if they would give the world to be free and, finally, an unnamed cowboy stretching his legs, getting ready for the games, doing a deep bend, so very close in looks to a ballet dancer's plier. This is a beautiful, moving book. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Rating:
Summary: SMALL TOWN RODEO
Review: Interesting, isn't it, that it took a Belgian photographer to create a book filled with exquisite black and white images of the American West specifically symbolized by the small town rodeo cowboy. I was immediately reminded of John Huston's brilliant movie, THE MISFITS in which, Montgomery Clift who could easily have been playing one of these very cowboys, calls his home to sadly tell his family that he has failed, once again, to win a prize or top money. A desperately sad scene, played brilliantly by Clift, written by none other than Arthur Miller.

Arena Editions has produced a handsome volume for Wouter Deruytter's magnificent pictures in which the horses, riders, clouds, mesas and mountains look as if they come directly from a John Ford western starring John Wayne. Here we see young men preparing themselves for tests as grueling as chivalric games from the Middle Ages.

I do not usually like alot of text accompanying books of photographs: I prefer to let the images speak for themselves. That said, John Wood's wonderful essay "Youthful Elegance and the Masks of Destiny" helps a city slicker like myself understand exactly what Deruytter's photographs are saying.

Some of my favorites include a little boy sitting astride a metal barrel pretending that the barrel is his first rodeo horse, the same boy practicing wrapping tape around his wrist as his older mentor/idol/friend does the same, a pen filled with black, brown, white horses looking as if they would give the world to be free and, finally, an unnamed cowboy stretching his legs, getting ready for the games, doing a deep bend, so very close in looks to a ballet dancer's plier. This is a beautiful, moving book. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Rating:
Summary: The West Lives On!
Review: This volume of rodeo photographs presents young men engaged in a lifestyle that is desperately under-appreciated -- and often mocked -- by many academics and much of the American literati as unsophisticated drones of Western resource exploitation.

Far from being automatons, these men have no pretense regarding their communion with nature; it is their LIFE. Whether relaxing, preparing for an event, or nursing wounds, these gentlemen evince a stoic elegance that is all but absent in the trappings of modern urban life.

Like his mentor Bruce Weber, Mr. Deruytter has a great eye for demonstrating that even that which is ultra-masculine retains far more than a glint of delicacy.

A solid pick for those interested in rural western life, and for those who appreciate cowboys yet to have their faces etched by the natural elements.

Rating:
Summary: Images of the American West drawn from three summers
Review: Wouter Deruytter is a Belgian photographer best known for his images of people in masks and costumes ranging from drag queens to circus performers. In Wouter Deruytter: Cowboy Code, we are treated to his photographic images of the American West drawn from three summers spent photographing Montana cowboys and the small town rodeos of Big Sky country. Augmented by John Wood's informative text, Wouter Deruytter: Cowboy Code is a photographic compendium with strong appeal for students of photography, as well as the non-specialist general reader with an interest in the cowboy culture of the modern American West.