Karoliina Paatos

Cowboygirls Five years ago I reached the point when I had to satisfy my curiosity about whether the cowboy culture of the American West still exists. I took nothing for granted and went to explore. I have been venturing the western countryside ever since. On my second journey, in 2011 I encountered two little girls growing up on a remote family owned cattle ranch in Northern Nevada. I was immediately intrigued by their world so rich with animals that a puppy on a birthday was nothing to get too excited about. Home schooling, helping with the chores on the ranch, riding, roping, and playing mostly by themselves, fills their days. My method is to dwell and linger, to catch the essential moments as well as the spaces in between them. Romance and harshness is branded in the visual image of a cowboy. The prevailing idea is still a lonesome twenty-something man moving from one camp to another whereas my cowboys are two girls growing up in a very masculine world that is not striving. Draught, high land prices and changes happening in the cattle industry are making this lifestyle nearly impossible to continue as it has been. I want to see the change through the lives of these two cowboygirls. My journey continues alongside them into their adulthood. I seek sensibility and vulnerability as well as more active attributes in my girls. Presence and quietness are the key elements. I do not isolate the subjects from their surroundings or make the existing light disappear. All that is happening around these sinewy girls is of significance. I am the persistent observer who tries to see things as they are.