German version

Adam Jahiel, has had a varied professional career. He has worked extensively for the motion picture industry, working on projects as varied as Out of Africa to HBO comedy specials. But, Jahiel is also drawn to adventure projects, most notably as the photographer for the landmark French-American 1987 Titanic expedition. His work has appeared in most major U.S. publications, including Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, National Geographic Society and others. Jahiel’s work also has appeared in literally dozens of books, including the acclaimed “The Day in a Life of” series.

The "Last Cowboy" Project

For years, Jahiel has been photographing the cowboys of the Great Basin, perhaps one of the most inhospitable regions of the already rugged West. These people represent one of the last authentic American subcultures, one that is disappearing at a rapid rate. Cowboying as an art form is almost obsolete; still, the cowboys hang on, with a ferocious tenacity. Respect there doesn’t come from the trappings of modern life. Talent, knowledge and skill are valued above all else. And the cowboy tradition has its roots in the oldest of human conflicts: man against nature and man against himself.

Jahiel tries to reflect those sentiments in these photographs. These cowboys aren’t “remade” into a Hollywood image. Instead, they are “found” images, in keeping with the spirit of authenticity that permeates the best keepers of this tradition.

Here's what the Critics say!

"Jahiel is one of the select few photographers who possess the sensitivity necessary to record this aspect of Americana. They succeed because their total involvement and immersion in the culture results in images that penetrate the glossy superficiality so pervasive in the popular press."

Camera and Darkroom Magazine

"If this truly be the death knell, then Jahiel's Last Cowboy project is the most eloquent of elegies."

Southwest Art Magazine

"These dramatic photographs recall the great historic paintings of artists such as Frederic Remington and Charles Russell."

Westword
Denver, Colorado

"Jahiel catches the play of light, the rush and texture of the clouds, the blurry poetry of dust, but most of all, the precise steady energies and weariness of the animals and the cowboys. Though the subject is familiar, the invigorating art of these photos cuts right through all the clichés with intoxicating directness."

Bruce Richardson
Art Critic

"Jahiel has unwittingly become America’s finest documentarian of the disappearing cowboy."

Stephanie Gregory
Photo Insider Magazine

"In a nutshell, Adam sees cowboy life whereas a lot of other photographers see calendars, other photographers are pursuing the myth and not the reality."

Richard Slatta
Author

"Jahiel’s West is a place of real accomplishment and emotion, in which the cameraman has captured the seriousness and balletic grace of the job of the cowboy—not just the longing in a little boy’s heart."

Joel Weinstein
Ft Worth Star Telegram
April 12, 1998

"Jahiel's photographs speak, softly, but with certainty. They touch us by the intriguing blend of tone, gesture, expression, and light. Time after time, his photos succeed because they reach our emotions first and then our intellect."

Corrine J. Brown
Persimmon Hill Magazine