Please join Phillips Gallery July 19th-August 9th as they welcome Rob Hammer to their gallery.
Calves to the Fire - Rob Hammer
"A few years ago I was eating a continental breakfast at some shitty hotel in the Midwest. The local news was playing on TV. I hate the news, but it was the only sound in an otherwise soulless room. The broadcaster started making a big fuss - “you’re not gonna believe what we’ve got here……a real life cowboy!!!!” Talking as if he was an alien that landed on earth and now walked among us humans. Her antics were one of many recent instances that made me realize the general public is completely disconnected and clueless about what really happens on a cattle ranch. It’s almost hard to blame them because cowboys, in a lot of ways, do live on a different planet. Still though, it makes you wonder if most folks think that beef just magically appears in their grocery store by means no different than a 12 pack of beer?
Being granted access to the daily lives of real working cowboys/cowgirls in the American West has been a great honor and privilege. There’s no way of putting into words how much respect these people deserve. The lengths they go to care for cattle is astonishing. Their everyday demands undetermined hours in relentless weather, covering land the size of some northeastern states by horseback, to manage wild and unpredictable 1,400 lb. animals.
It’s said that 30 billion pounds of beef are consumed every year in the United States. This series aims to show outsiders that cowboys aren’t just characters played in a movie. They are hard working men and women that have dedicated their lives to working cattle while adhering to the code and traditions of the American West.
Traditions that have gone mostly unchanged for the past hundred years despite what Hollywood depictions would have you believe."
