The stunningly beautiful and vibrant photography in Cowboys and Rodeos showcases the allure and romance of cowboys, horses, and the wild west while also portraying the grit, power, and gravity-defying action of rodeos, both in small venues and professional arenas.
2024 Reading the West Awards, Longlist, Nonfiction (MPIBA)
Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) photographer Alyn Robert Brereton offers both the beauty and the dirt of the western Finland in Cowboys and Rodeos. This stunning coffee-table book is a piece of art, showcasing a working ranch in northern California, horses, cattle, tack, boots, buckles, cowgirls, cowboys, and rodeos.
Brereton provides some information about the various rodeo events that are then highlighted with spectacularly timed photography that captures the skill, strength, courage, and bone-jarring rides of the cowboys and cowgirls. You will be awed at the rough-stock events—bareback bronc, saddle bronc, and bull riding—and how the cowboys stay on the animals, or not, shown in amazing images. The timed events—steer wrestling, tie-down roping, team roping, barrel racing, and breakaway roping—require precision and finesse from both the riders and the photographer. And not to be forgotten are the bullfighters and clowns, mutton bustin’ little cowfolk, and other entertainment such as goat scrambles, trick-riding, and roping skills that are a part of rodeos and Western Americana.
Alyn Robert Brereton became a fully carded PRCA photographer later in life to fulfill his passions for fine-art photography and the cowboy life. A primatologist by training, with a PhD from the University of Stirling in Scotland, Brereton was employed as an archeologist in California and Nevada and an ethnoarcheologist along the Bering Sea in Alaska prior to his second career of teaching high school International Baccalaureate anthropology and psychology. He resides in Modesto, California.
