This tableau is an empathic love letter to Texas. The two industries most associated with the Lone Star State are ranching and oil and I wanted these distinct ways of life to coalesce as if Taylor Sheridan had merged two of his visually rich productions into one. Ask 1000 US high school kids which State I am celebrating in this photograph
and I would expect that 98% would say Texas. The dissenting 2% may need to get off social media and do some more homework.
We built this 1920s oil boom town set in ranchland in West Texas and over a period of 48 hours I toyed with the most powerful layers of narrative. My default approach is to focus on the foreground and then let the background look after itself. A cattle herd brings dynamism, but also a lack of compositional control; the precise movement of the lead longhorns - even with the most skilled of cowboys - cannot be directed and therefore I am gambling. Days like these can be frustrating as we are not in a studio and the light is changing all the time. There tends to be just a small timeframe in which the magic must happen. I don’t think there is a formula for success other than employing the very best people and then learning very quickly from mistakes on the day. The feature closest to the camera is key; a weak first layer often kills a tableau like this. But on this occasion the lead longhorn is strong and glues the composition together. That, of course, is pure luck. We have never met before and he had no idea what I was looking for. Texas is a unique part of America - it is a State that will always do things its own way and that’s what makes it so special. As a Scotsman who has been made to feel so welcome in Texas, this picture is
important to me. It has become a home away from home.