Good Morning, Waggoner
Mornings on the Waggoner Ranch near Vernon, Texas glow with the lights of trucks, trailers, and the moon as the cowboys get ready to drive out into the pasture. On the largest ranch under one fence in the United States, a single pasture is often 6,500-10,000 acres.
At Jimbo Glover’s signal, the cowboys leave their early breakfast to head out to work . There’s no pecking order as the cowboys line up across the horse pen. “It’s like church, sitting in the same pew every Sunday,” explains cowboy John Paul Welch. “Everybody just stands in the same place.” At Jimbo’s signal, cowboys call out the name of a horse on their string they want to ride that day.
During his time on the ranch, Jeremy Enlow photographed the early morning hours many times. From the hazy blue of a foggy morning to the crisp white moon when the cowboys got to work before the sun, you can see all manners of Texas skies in Cowboys of the Waggoner Ranch.
“There’s such a great quality of light and consistency of mood throughout the whole thing. Jeremy really captured that and carried it through. Photos are a like a paragraph. One leads to the next. I look for consistency and he did it. The images are graphic and informative. If you don’t have great light you better nail the moments. He did. He listened and he nailed it and I’m really proud of him.” -John Davidson (Director of Photography Dallas Mornings News 1984-2002)
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