Western Photographer: Kurt Markus
CO Bar Ranch, Flagstaff, AZ, 1986
Kurt Markus, is an internationally acclaimed fine art film photographer best known for his portraits of cowboys in the American West. His cowboy images—gritty, respectful, and somehow timeless—possess an elegiac quality as they document a world of toil and rugged competence that’s slowly vanishing from the American landscape. Markus has published three books of cowboy photography: After Barbed Wire, Buckaroo, and Cowpuncher, which in 2002 was named the most outstanding art book of year by the Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Markus was born in rural Montana in 1947, and though he grew up immersed in the great outdoors, he knew from an early age that the world of ranching and field work was not a life for him. “I was born a daydreamer,” he says, “and I know of no slot for one of those on any ranch.” He attended West Point and served with the elite U.S. Army Rangers during Vietnam. But he learned by hard experience that the military was no profession for him, either. Recalls Markus: “When I got out of the Army in the early 70s, I knew one thing—that whatever I was going to do with my life, I wanted to love it and believe in it.”
So he trained his love and faith on photography. Inspired by Edward Weston, Paul Strand, and a handful of other fine-art practitioners, Markus taught himself the rudiments of the craft and went to work. Since then, his camera has taken him, quite literally, around the world—from the Solomon Islands to Yemen, from the sand dunes of Namibia to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
(Sourced from: https://www.kurtmarkus.com/about)
Quien Sabe Ranch, TX, 1983
“I learned how to load film on horseback at a trot—and in driving snow,” he muses. “I learned how to be ready, to stay out of the way, and to always thank the cook.”
~ Kurt Markus
(1947 - 2022)
Kurt’s Portrait of Ralph Lauren
A quality of raw authenticity—an “unslickness,” as it’s been described—runs through all of Markus’s portraits, whether his subject is a celebrity actor (Meryl Streep), a world-famous musician (John Mellencamp), a prizewinning author (Cormac McCarthy), an international supermodel (Christy Turlington), or just ordinary folk. He enjoys cultivating a collaborative bond with the people he shoots, a relationship built on mutual trust and respect. In his photographs, there is a subtle tug-of-war between what is revealed and what is withheld. Says Markus: “I have entered into an unspoken, unwritten, and generally inscrutable pact with the people I have photographed and lived among: If I promise not to tell all I know about them, they will do the same for me.”
Markus has also enjoyed a distinguished career as one of the world’s preeminent fashion photographers. His fashion work has graced the covers and pages of such magazines as Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Elle, and Harper’s Bazaar, and he has traveled the world shooting for clients that include Armani, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Banana Republic, and Liz Claiborne. Reviewers have praised the steady grace and understated sensuality of his fashion photographs, noting his sense of “style and wit.” With Markus behind the camera, wrote one observer, “models are people and not just mannequins, and they contribute their personality to the work.”
Markus attributes the success of his multi-faceted career to relentless hard work, but also to a willingness always to remain open to unexpected opportunities. “I think the really valuable experiences are the ones that come out of nowhere while you’re plodding along on a journey,” he says. “But persistence is valuable, too. I always worked hard, always showed up. Sweat is part of the equation.”
Wherever his Linhof field camera takes him, Markus regards himself as a blessed man, a dumbstruck pilgrim in the world of photographic art. “I consider it a gift to have found photography and made my life in it,” he says. “I never thought of it as a job. I’ve always associated the click of the shutter with the word ‘Yes.’”
KURT MARKUS, Maruez Brothers Ranching, Battle Mountain, Nevada, 1981