Last of a Breed

In one of the antique stores in Tomball I picked up a book of photographs, Last of a Breed, Portraits of Working Cowboys by Martin H Schreiber. I was not familiar with Schreiber’s work but the photographs are outstanding. It seems that he is from New York City. He had a chance meeting with a group of Texas ranchers at the Lone Star Café in New York City.  He asked if they would come by his studio for portraits. They did, struck up a friendship and the ranchers invited him to come to the southwest to photograph. A number of the photographs in the book were taken at a ranch at Wichita Falls and some from the 6666 ranch that was originally owned by Burk Burnett for whom the town where I grew up was named.

In the forward to the book, Schreiber wrote, “Photography can never truly convey the qualities, the feelings inherent in any given subject. If successful, photographs can offer a glimpse into something; if not, they can lie and distort.”