From the Editor

Once again, I'm sitting at the table reviewing work for Photolucida in April of 2022, and in comes Landry Major to show me her platinum/palladium and gelatin silver prints of horses and ranch life of the American West. Am I familiar with work like this? Yes. Have I seen a multitude of images of the West through the eyes of the cowboy and what they represent from an Americana perspective? Again, yes. But have I seen it done so well and beautifully that I cannot take my eyes off the scenes I'm seeing presented to me? Absolutely not.

As I learned, this collection, Winter's Horses, is a subset of a larger body of work from Major, Keepers of the West. However, it was the winter images that stood out to me (note: everything here is incredible). These images were simply magical, as what one might expect from witnessing scenes in such a frosty environment. Making photographs in this environment is difficult at best, but when you couple that with fast-moving subjects of an unpredictable nature, you more or less have a recipe for disaster. That's why I was so stunned by what I saw in this work. Major has committed herself fully to capturing the essence of these beasts and those who strive to control and use them in their ranching efforts.

I've known and spent enough time around horses before to see that you simply do not fuck around regarding what could happen around one or more of them at any given time. It's wildcard season 24/7 when you're dealing with an animal that is both primal and loving at the same time. If you've ever had a horse hug you, you know what I mean. And if you've ever been kicked? Forget about it. Majestic creatures such as these have as much personality and character as any human, and they will show you exactly who they are.

There is an incredible symbiotic relationship at play here, and viewing these frigid landscapes through the eyes of Major is an exhilarating experience. My only suggestion beyond this article and these images is to seek out her finished prints, as they genuinely do the work justice.

–Michael Kirchoff @michaelkirchoff

Winter’s Horses

Winter’s Horses is part of my larger series Keepers Of The West. I realized I was only shooting these family ranches during the summer months, and this was far from the only reality these ranchers face. They must operate 365 days a year, in every kind of weather, and I would have to be willing to face that too if I wanted to be genuine in their representation.

And Montana did not disappoint. The day I arrived the temperature dropped to minus 5 degrees as several feet of fresh snow fell. It was absolutely beautiful – and incredibly cold. One thing I have learned from working with cowboys is you never complain.

I had set up 5 shoots with ranchers, and right away the cancelations began. It was calving season, and the ranchers were up all night in the minus 15-degree cold, using flashlights to find the newborn calves in the fields before they froze – which happens very quickly if they’re not found because they’re born wet. When I called Jesse to confirm – I’ve shot him since 2017 - he laughed and said, “This is cowboy shit, come on down!” An hour later I was outside watching him rope and herd his horses in the extreme cold -- and the beauty of that moment is Winter’s Horses. I am eternally grateful to Jesse for his generosity and intrepid attitude.

One note about the horses: to the ranchers they’re as individual as people. And one of the horses in the Winter’s Horse’s collection is known as ICU Paint, because she’s put seven people in the ICU who tried to ride her. ICU Paint belonged to Cranky Charlie, who got tired of the horse-throwing people – so he gave the horse to Jesse without mentioning her propensity for hospitalizing people. Jesse could ride anything, and he and ICU got along fine, but in short order two more people ended up in the ICU, one losing her hearing in one ear. Sometime after our shoot, Jesse loaded her up and left her at Charlie’s ranch in the dead of night. The next morning Charlie called and said, “Hey what’s your horse doing here?” Jesse replied, “My horse? Sorry, that horse is your problem.” She is forever wild in Winter’s Horses.

–Landry Major

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About the Artist

Landry Major is a fine art photographer living in Los Angeles. She stands in awe of nature, and of the inner life of human beings. Through her lens she seeks to reveal the subtle fire, the hidden hero of her subjects. She began her work as a self taught analog photographer. Her career began as an editorial photographer photographing the top MMA and Boxing fighters. She was a contributing photographer for the New York Times, Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated and many other magazines. This work won her a Communication Arts Award of Excellence and Lurzer’s Archive Best Photographers Worldwide. She reluctantly started shooting digital due to the demands of the quick turn around for her editorial clients.

In 2017 she decided to start on a personal project which became Keepers Of The West. She spent a week learning from Norm Clasen who shot all the Marlboro campaigns for years. Her recent work has brought her to a vision of a simpler life, a culture deeply connected to the rugged terrain of the disappearing American West. In it she has found the quiet strength of its stoic people, and the majestic animals they coexist with. In her series Keepers of the West and Winter’s Horses, she provides a fleeting glimpse of a life and time that can only be found under America’s wide-open western skies.

She felt that the historic feel of this series needed a historic printing process and spent a week outside Santa Fe New Mexico learning to print platinum palladium prints from master printer David Michael Kennedy and fell in love with the process. She makes her own limited edition platinum prints and master printer Laurent Girard, formerly of Griffin Editions makes the silver gelatin prints for the limited editions. She shoots on a Canon digital camera, and then creates analog negatives to print the silver gelatin or large platinum palladium prints.

Landry’s striking silver gelatin and platinum palladium prints can be found in both public and private collections. Recent awards and honors include a Solo Exhibition at The Griffin Museum of Photography, Critical Mass Finalist, All About Photo Awards, Tokyo Foto Awards, SIPA Finalist, International Color Awards, Julia Margaret Cameron Gala Award, Lurzer’s Archive Best Photographers Worldwide, and Communication Arts Award of Excellence.

landrymajor.com

@landrymajorart

About the author

Michael Kirchoff works in the worlds of both commercial and fine art photography. A commercial shooter for over thirty years, it is his fine art work that has set him apart from others, with instant film and toy camera images fueling several bodies of work. His consulting, training, and overall support of his fellow photographic artist continues with assistance in constructing one’s vision, reviewing portfolios, and finding exhibition opportunities, which fill the gaps in time away from active shooting.

Michael is also an independent curator and juror, and advocate for the photographic arts. Currently, he is also Editor-in-Chief at Analog Forever Magazine, and is the Founding Editor for the online photographer interview website, Catalyst: Interviews. Previously, Michael spent over four years as Editor at BLUR magazine.

Poignant Portfolio no. 40: Landry Major