Cowboy Up

New York: Powerhouse Books, 2005. 1st. Hardcover. Very Good/None. 128 pages, b&w photographs of rodeo performers. In publisher's shrinkwrap. After reading a front-page article in The New York Times about the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo, Arthur Frank took a week off from work to travel around Wyoming, photographing whatever rodeos he could find. Once there, he found the culture of the American cowboy very much alive and kicking. Although their practical skills remain essential to modern ranching, it is the rodeo where their trade is praised, perpetuating the myth and mystique of America’s rough and rugged icon—the cowboy. Cowboy Up, Frank’s first monograph, presents photographs taken at more than fifty rodeos—including high school, college, and women’s competitions in addition to professional rodeos—in Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota, Nevada,Arizona, Calgary, Alberta, even Binghamton, New York. As a former football and rugby player from New York City, Frank approached the roundup with an athlete’s understanding, while his profession provided distance from the clichés associated with the sport. With photographs that capture the vigorous physicality of one of the world’s most erratic and dangerous sports, Cowboy Up delves deeply into the modern cowboy’s life, capturing riders during the jittery wait before the roundup, and back at the ranch, engaging in work that tamed the Wild West. Frank’s outsider perspective and insider access combine to provide a humanistic yet dynamic and inspiring view into a lifestyle that has become an American legend. Record # 351208