Timeless Photographs Capture ‘The Simple Life’ of Colorado Cattle Ranchers

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Timelessness is a quality we all strive for in our images. It’s a quality earned, not given, through the time and effort put into conceptualizing, visualizing and capturing an image.

And when it is earned, the results are phenomenal… oftentimes winding back the clock or making time seem almost irrelevant to the image. Such is the case for the work of Michael Crouser, a Minnesota-based photographer who has spent the past eight years documenting cattle ranching families in Colorado.

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The photographs Crouser captures leave us guessing at when they were taken and what gear was used. Monochrome, filled with distinct tones and dramatic contrast, the images seem to almost pop off the screen.

Speaking with the Huffington Post, Crouser was asked about the lifestyles and work of the cattle ranching families he’s spent just shy of a decade documenting.

His reply, as you might expect, was that the work these families do is not for the faint of heart; however, for generations it’s all they’ve done, and therefore all they know. They will continue to live “the simple life” for as long as they can until developers begin taking the land away piece by piece.

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On that note, Crouser goes on to point out that such a lifestyle probably isn’t going to be one that his subjects’ children and grandchildren will have.

“As the land in this region of Colorado becomes more valuable and practical for development than for growing hay and grazing cattle, ranching will disappear,” he tells Huff Po. “Along with these families, their operations and traditional ways of working.”

Below is a collection of images Crouser has been kind enough to share with us:

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To see more of Crouser’s Mountain Ranch series, or if you’d like to browse through the rest of his portfolio, head on over to his website or give him a follow on Facebook and Tumblr.


Image credits: Photographs by Michael Crouser and used with permission

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