PrintQuest for the West: The Photography of Jean Laughton
Of all the photographers documenting the West, you’d be hard-pressed to find a cowgirl who immerses herself in her topic quite like Jean Laughton. For years, the former New York casting director had been responding to the call of the Wild West, taking road trips in the name of photography; then a photo shoot on the Quarter Circle XL Ranch near Belvidere, South Dakota, caused her to upend her life. Now Lyle O’ Bryan’s, it was once the Thode Ranch, early home of 1929 All-Around World Champion Cowboy Earl Thode. After photographing on the property Laughton took a job there as a true cowgirl. She’s been shooting ranch life ever since.
The journey that led Laughton to quit big-city East for small-town West began as an artistic impulse: In the early ’90s she bought a ’67 Impala for $500 and hit the road on a quest to capture what was left of fading Americana. Old signs, buildings, vehicles, architecture, livestock — these “drive-by” images comprise a distinct vision of what remains of the nation’s rich and unusual heritage.
In the mid-’90s Laughton traded her muscle car for a Bronco and took to the road again, this time focused on capturing a more rustic, genuine America. With the back of her truck filled with photo equipment and a backdrop painted by friends, she left the East again in search of characters who embodied the Western spirit. Setting up a makeshift outdoor studio at rodeos in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana, Laughton photographed participants in their regalia against her backdrop. She named the series after the overwhelming urge she had begun spending summers fulfilling: Go West. The behind-the-scenes portraits in the series play with — almost tease — perceptions of the mythology and realities of the West. And they speak of Laughton’s personal journey.
Every time the nomadic photographer traveled West, she found it more difficult to return to urban life. “Those adventures were filled with new discovery,” Laughton says. “On the road by myself, driving through the beautiful landscape of the West while finding my own way creatively and personally — those were some of the best times of my life and led me to where I am today.”
Today Laughton finds herself in the Badlands. In 2002 she left her megalopolis home of 16 years and relocated to Interior, South Dakota, a once-bustling ranch and rodeo town that now has a population of 67. Laughton no longer has to hit the road in her quest for the West — she hits the saddle and shoots her daily ranch life working her own cattle on the Dakota prairies Thode once called home. “It’s quite an experience to ride on the same land and cross the same White River — doing cattle work that hasn’t changed much over the years — mingling with the past as I document the present.”
• Info: To see more of Jean Laughton’s work, including her latest series My Ranching Life, visit www.jeanlaughton.com.
Issue: March 2010
