M.L. Bolton
Scene from
Horseback
M.L. Bolton’s mission has been to photograph, document and pay
tribute to modern-day working ranch cowboys and their way of life.
Article by Sonny Williams
M
.L. Bolton sees in black and white. No,
he’s not colorblind, but Bolton views the
world a bit differently than the rest of
us. His perspective is unique in that he
not only sees his subjects in sharp tonal contrasts, but
he photographs them while he is on horseback. Bolton
travels the American West, in his one-ton pickup and
camper/photography lab, over countless miles, visiting
working cattle and horse ranches, and riding the pastures
in brutal heat and dust, frigid snow and rain, all in an
attempt to find the right shot of working ranch cowboys
doing what they’ve done for more than 100 years.
For the past three years, Bolton has been working passionately on a project, A Timeless Way: A Photographical
Tribute to Working Ranch Cowboys, scheduled for publication in 2011. A gallery of his photos may be viewed at
www.atimelessway.com. The chapter in American history
of the great cattle drives is forever closed, but this pictorial
essay of working ranch cowboys reveals that the cowboy
way of life and the spirit of the American West still thrive.
Quarter Horse News
• September 1, 2008
The vast majority of the text in this book will consist of
audio-recorded interview transcriptions from the actual
men and women in the ranching community about
which this book is written. Though Bolton acknowledges
that many texts and photography books exist with the
American cowboy as their subject, Bolton believes there’s
a deficiency of documentation on working cowboys in
which the cowboys actually share their way of life, experiences and traditions in their own words.
“If you look at most of the current cowboy photography that’s done, most of it’s photographed in working
pens, or most of it’s done in situations where you could
get out of your pickup and walk out there and they’d
be working,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with that.
There are several very successful photographers that
do that, and some of those I have emulated as far as I
admire what they do.”
But Bolton is no dilettante spectator. He prefers to
be in the mix, experiencing the same conditions as the
cowboys, and much like the working ranch cowboys he
chronicles, Bolton approaches his craft as a pragmatist.
He prefers digital photography, not because he thinks it
is better than other mediums, but for practical reasons:
“There is no way that I can shoot 13,000-15,000 photographs a year, can be in the environment that I’m in,
which is rain, snow, dust, heat, all on horseback, and be
able to shoot as much as I can with the mobility that I
need to and with the durability that I need to with film.
And it would just be an economical nightmare to do
that [to use film].”
Bolton’s sepia-toned photographs, with their brown,
turn-of-the-century feel, possess a warmth and clarity. They are reminiscent of the pictures taken by L.A.
Huffman, a photographer who chronicled the American
West on horseback. Huffman arrived in Miles City,
Montana Territory, in 1879 as the post photographer at
Fort Keogh. He is best known for his action-stopping
photos, taken with home-built cameras, of the cattle
industry, which explains Bolton’s affinity for Huffman’s
historically significant work.
“Taking ’em to the Wagon”: Cowboys at the Bell Ranch, Solano, N.M., drive the working
remuda to the wagon camp on the first day of spring works.
“My photography hero is L.A. Huffman,” Bolton
said. “He was one of the first photographers, even in
those days with that crude equipment, to shoot ahorseback. He photographed that whole era of the end of the
open range. He carried all his equipment horseback and
shot horseback, and he knew, because he was a cowboy
and because he had a ranching background, where to be
at the right time.”
For Bolton, color is distracting, and he sees much
more definition and detail in black and white. Sepia falls
in the middle. That dark-brown pigment is also suggestive of the tintype, or ferrotype, method of photography
and evokes a haunting, timeless quality, as if reaching
out across the ages to forever engrave the cowboy culture
to the land. Tintype photography was first patented in
the United States in 1856. It consists of a positive image
taken directly on a thin plate of black-enameled iron
coated with a light-sensitive emulsion, such as silver
nitrate. Several contemporary photographers, such as
Robb Kendrick, have turned to this type of photography
with great success. However, the subjects must remain
perfectly still for the exposure.
Such a method as tintype is impractical, and near
impossible, for Bolton’s purposes because of the exposure
and developing time, expense, and use of caustic chemicals, like potassium cyanide. Instead, Bolton uses several
types of cameras, all digital. He shoulders a Nikon D2X,
and an 18-200mm vibration-resistant lens, on horseback.
But he also carries other equipment that doesn’t lend
itself to conveyance by equine.
“I carry a big camera when I’m doing ground work
or in a branding truck. If they are branding in the
spring or shipping in the fall, usually they’ve got a
branding truck that will come behind, and my photography bag goes in there. In there is another D2X with
an 80-400mm lens that weighs about 12 pounds, and
it’s very, very difficult to carry that ahorseback,” he said.
“There is no slick way of carrying it [the camera]. I
feel like a very awkward person horseback. It’s like you
have only one arm and one leg, especially when long
trotting in the pasture. Years ago, I made myself an elastic strap when I was photographing the Grand Canyon,
and I still use that strap today. But it is still awkward.”
Getting skinny
Bolton has visited numerous ranches over the years,
some larger than 300,000 acres, riding in the pastures
with cowboys, coiled ropes at their saddle horns, and
those who operate these ranches have been very generous, inviting Bolton to enter their world.
“John and Kevva Anderson, at the Muleshoe Ranch
in Gail, Texas, have really helped me a lot. They trusted
me, gave me an opportunity, and have went out of their
way to get me further down the road,” he said. “These
men and women are not just photography subjects to
me, they are my friends. And my life has been blessed
because of those friendships.
“A lot of folks have helped me and given me a
chance to follow this deep passion that I have. I have to
acknowledge all of the cowboys and their families who
have helped me and who I respect so much.”
The long list includes: John Welch, president and
CEO of the Spade Ranch, Renderbrook, Texas, and
Neil McLain, wagon boss, at Wagon Creek Spade,
Throckmorton, Texas; Jeff (deceased) and Jan Lane
of the Bell Ranch, Solano, N.M.; Craig Haythorn of
Haythorn Land and Cattle Co., Arthur, Neb.; Ron
Lane, general manager of the Pitchfork Ranch, Guthrie,
Texas; Bubba Smith of the Tongue River Ranch,
Dumont, Texas; and Mike Gibson, general manager,
and Reggie Hatfield, wagon boss, of the 6666 Ranch,
Guthrie, Texas, to mention a few.
When he’s photographing, Bolton said his job is to
disappear, and to not interfere with the cowboys’ work.
Bolton rides horseback to take his pictures because he
wants to capture cowboys in impromptu and spontaneous settings, and the best way to capture those
moments is to blend in.
“If you’re horseback with them [cowboys], all day
long, and you leave out at 4 in the morning and you
long trot to the back of a pasture and you gather the
September 1, 2008 • Quarter Horse News M.L. Bolton
cattle, work all day long, after two or three days, they
forget you’re there,” he said. “They have work to do, so
the best thing you can do is disappear, or as I like to
call it, get skinny.”
And Bolton has work to do, as well.
“I have had to learn to deal with the reality of working
with a midday sun when the Kelvin light temperature is
off the wall. It’s also very hard on you physically. You’re
facing the same elements those cowboys are. You learn
their style, their way of work. And you earn the respect
of those men you’re working with.”
Born Mancel Lee in 1955 in Belton, Texas, Bolton
and his brother, Wayne, grew up roping and training
horses with their father, and they competed in timed
events, such as calf roping, team roping and steer
wrestling, in high school and professional rodeos. His
father, Boots Bolton, was instrumental in shaping his
knowledge of horses and cattle, his work ethic, and
taught him to have respect for a handshake and the
fact that your word is your bond. In 1976, Bolton went
to work for Bill Cloud at the Cloud Ranches in Bell
County, Texas. Among Bolton’s responsibilities at the
Quarter Horse News
(Left) “First Drink”: Horses used to gather the remuda get
a drink at sunrise. (Upper right) “Matching Oxbows”: This
cowboy’s ornate spurs and spur straps match his iron
oxbow stirrups. (Lower right) “Tired”: It’s 114 degrees, and
this young cowboy had been going hard since daylight.
• September 1, 2008
M.L. Bolton
“Photography just serves as another tool
to document these very special, hardworking men and women.”
– M.L. Bolton
Alice R. Wells
M.L. Bolton photographs while horseback. (Above) Bolton
in his digital “darkroom”
ranch were breaking and starting young colts and helping to manage both a registered and commercial cowcalf operation. It was also at the Cloud Ranch where
he met his future wife, Susan, to whom he has been
married for 31 years. They have two children, Will, 25,
and Kasey, 28.
During most of Bolton’s adult life, he has been
involved in photography. He has transitioned through
photography mediums from 35mm film cameras to his
present-day work in digital photography and has been
heavily involved in commercial digital photography. He
is a member of The Texas Photographic Society, The
Texas Professional Photographers Association, Kodak
Professionals, the Nikonians, National Ranching
Heritage Association and the Working Ranch
Cowboys Association.
A Timeless Way
As to the genesis of A Timeless Way, Bolton said
that the turning point came when he read an article
in the The Livestock Weekly, written by John Welch
(who is writing the introduction to Bolton’s book),
who wrote, “As land values appreciate far above production values, how do you justify large family-owned
ranches continuing in operation as opposed to selling
the property?”
Bolton was so provoked by that comment, he
made it his mission to begin documenting and paying tribute to the ranches, the working cowboys and
their families, their values, and a way of life that is in
danger of disappearing. Bolton understands the harsh
conditions and realities facing the modern American
ranch, and to explain the dilemma of the familyowned ranch, he provided one scenario:
“Let’s take a ranch that was founded in 1930. I’m
talking about ranches that are maybe 30,000-60,000
acres that are family-owned. When that ranch was
started, there was a man and a woman that got married, and somehow they either inherited or scraped
by and started putting it together. They fought the
screwworms and drought in the ’50s, and that ranch
provided a living for those two people as they raised
their children. Maybe one or two of the children
stayed on to run the ranch and carried on the family
tradition. Now we’re talking 2005, 6, 7, 8, now we’ve
Susan Bolton
Quarter Horse News
• September 1, 2008
M.L. Bolton
got 16-24 of those generational kids, grandkids, greatgrandkids, and they’re all looking to that same piece of
land to carry all those families with an income. The land
can’t do it.”
As more and more families and their children move
away, go to college, take jobs in the city and become
disconnected from the land that their ancestors
worked, the land becomes just another asset, rather
than part of a family tradition worked with sweat and
love.
“Many of these folks don’t have the tie to the land,
so they say to themselves, we can sell this property
because it’s gone sky-high and take that money and
re-invest it and make a whole lot more with our
inheritance than we are holding on to this old piece of
land. And you really can’t fault them for that, because
that is probably the smart financial thing to do.”
Bolton exclusively photographs working ranch
cowboys. However, he doesn’t see himself on some
romantic crusade, though his project tends more
toward sociological documentation than art. Given his
background, it’s no wonder that he is concerned about
the problems today’s ranches face. Apart from the
land being sold, there are fewer “core” cowboys, and
the availability of the labor force is dwindling.
“Early on, a ranch kept resident cowboys all year
long, then to reduce labor, it went to ‘neighboring’
with adjacent ranches, then they reduced down to
hiring day hands, and now since that work force has
started getting scarce due to $5 diesel and the availability of good cowhands, more and more are starting
to gather with a horn and cattle cake.
“Some people think that this project I’m doing
is mostly about photography, but actually the photography has become less the focus,” Bolton said.
“Photography just serves as another tool to document
these very special, hard-working men and women.
The fact of the matter is, there are fewer and fewer
younger cowboys staying on ranches and working.
The wages are not that well to hold them there. They
may have grown up to be fourth-generation cowboys,
but if they move to town and they take a plumbing
job, let’s say, within one generation of their children
going to public schools, most all of those traditions,
ethics, manners, responsibilities, all that gets diluted.”
Bolton views the cowboy lifestyle as a different culture
from mainstream America, preserving a set of core values and ethics of which the rest of the country is in sore
need.
“I truly believe that the working ranch cowboy and
his family are a seed stock of people who have helped
make this nation strong,” he said. “Their sense of
humility, responsibility and generosity is a missing dose
of medicine that the young people of this world badly
need. They are some of the most intelligent men and
women on this planet, and they have inherited and
retained a work ethic and value system that is rare and
priceless. My granddad told me once, if you are blessed
enough to do a job that you truly love, then you will
never work a day in your life. I think at 52 years old, I
have finally found that job.”
A resilient breed
Bolton recently read another article that stated the
American cowboy is a dead and dying breed. “People
have been predicting the demise of American ranches
and working cowboys since the end of the cattle
drives,” he said.
Indeed, the American cowboy and the cowboy’s
way of life have been on death’s door for the last 100
years. Many individual land holdings have fallen, and
Quarter Horse News
• September 1, 2008
“Squeezing the Swells”:
Another day, another cold-backed colt
Why Sepia?
M.L. Bolton explains why
this is his preferred pigment.
n It is reminiscent of tintype
photography. It reminds you of
that turn-of-the-century look.
n I see in black and white. I
see in tonal contrasts and not
in colors. There are 256 tones
from pure white to pure black.
And I want to see those tones
because the meat, the articulation of that photograph, is
in those midtones. It’s where
things pop; you see definition,
you see detail. I see in black
and white, and I shoot accordingly with all my settings in
the cameras. What I found
was, early on, there are a lot of
people in this world who love
black and white photography.
There are people in this world
who love color photography.
Sepia falls right in the middle,
so it is a satisfaction of those
who think black and white is
too stark and those that think
color distracts from detail.
n I shoot for a lot of products
when I try to photograph. About
1-3 percent of my photography is quality enough in all
aspects to be a limited-edition
print for galleries. The rest is
used as stock photography and
other products. A sepia-toned
“The Dance”: The cowboys at Wagon Creek Spade,
Throckmorton, Texas, synchronize their movements as in a
dance: (left to right) J.B. Miller, Bill Elliott, Curtis Timmons
and Hegan Lamb.
the independent rancher has found it increasingly difficult to turn a profit, but along with the advent of cell
phones and other forms of information technology, the
cowboy – an anachronism in a taco hat – has adapted
to the changing economics, rising energy and production costs, and encroaching land development.
Despite the decades of rhetoric predicting the inevitable doom of ranches and working ranch cowboys, Bolton
photograph, for example, in a
magazine will not compete with
a color product that is being
advertised. It’s a good marketing tool in that regard.
n Self-preservation. I don’t
get the opportunity to shoot
only during the “golden hours.”
There’s an hour in the morning
and an hour in the evening [the
golden hours for photography]
and I’m horseback, and we’re
usually long trotting about that
time. So I have to shoot all
day long. So if you try to shoot
a color photograph at noon in
July, what do you do? Sepia
allows me to get away with that,
shooting all times of the day.
sees the cowboy as resilient. He’s going to stay around.
“As long as there are large tracts of land and
America’s producing beef,” he said, “somebody has to
look after and work those cattle. And the best way to
do that is on the back of a horse.
“I was on a ranch in New Mexico three years ago.
Here we were during spring works. They’re dragging
cattle to the fire and branding. At the same time the
calf ’s down, they’re dehorning and castrating and
vaccinating him, the same things they’ve done since
1860. Now here’s an additional cowboy just taking a
hole punch, like you punch a hole in leather, punching a hole in the calf ’s ear. The falloff of that is some
cartilage, two pieces of skin and some hair. That goes
in a petri dish that’s read with a bar code, which is
then entered into some genetics software on a laptop
computer. You can put an ear tag in their ear and come
by them two weeks later in a pickup and shoot a radarlooking gun at them, read that bar code, and it will tell
you the mama, daddy, birth weight, point of origin and
so on. So here in the middle of New Mexico, it’s 114
degrees, the cowboys are dragging cattle to the fire just
like they did in 1860, and they are using laptop computers and all kinds of technology in the branding pen.
Yeah, the cowboy’s resilient. He’s gonna adapt.” n