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VOLUME 2, 2017 / 2018

SCOTT BAX T ER Life on the Range

The Storyteller Kelly Vaughn, Writer

Three times, Scott Baxter and I have worked together in

hands and cowboys goes back to his childhood, when he’d

the Range,” the subject’s eyes reveal her familiarity with her

Sonoita Creek with his dog Zilpha. As the sun went down, we

Southern Arizona.

watch westerns on television and read their sagas in the pages

The first time, he’d found a story in Patagonia. A man in a

portraitist. She was an old woman, but her eyes are all light

of a book.

drove with Harrison to his favorite bar, where he spun stories

creek, the writer Jim Harrison.

and depth and beauty.

“There’s a picture somewhere of me as a boy,” Scott

with a handful of writer-artist friends.

The second time, he’d found a story in McNeal. Farmer

“I was just sitting with Connie talking, as we had been for

remembers. “I’ve got a cowboy hat and two six-shooters.”

He was, indeed, a bit of a character.

cousins, working to save their family’s legacy.

a while,” Scott told me as we edited the book. “Sometimes

It was the genesis of something he wouldn’t fully understand

I think we were a little quieter during the long drive back

The third time, a story found me in Sonoita. A ranch kid

to get someone to do what you want them to do — look past

for years.

to Phoenix than we had been driving down. Some stories

turned model-actor turned country music star.

you — you just make them comfortable. They’ll gift that to

He rode horses as a teenager, too, but it wasn’t until he

sit in your belly for a while before they run from your head

These are just a few of the profiles we’ve worked together,

you, open that up to you, if they feel comfortable.”

wrote his thesis on the annexation of Texas that he realized his

through your hands.

telling other people’s lives through photographs and words.

The photographs themselves are gifts.

real passion for the region.

When Harrison died in March 2016, I remembered him the

The others have been north and east, on ranches and on

A glimpse into a quiet moment on a ranch. The grit of a

Then, he moved to Arizona.

way Scott photographed him. Honestly.

reservations, down a dozen dusty roads.

branding. The movement of the remuda across gold-colored

“Coming out here wasn’t meant to be permanent, just a few

As Scott approaches his 60th birthday, he’s looking at

In fact, we’ve traveled a lot together over the past seven

grass. Boots and spurs, eyes and ropes and hands.

years,” Scott says. “My step dad told me that if I wore out a

his work and at his life a bit differently. Within a year, he’ll

“Several things really stand out when I look at Scott’s

pair of shoes, though, I’d never leave.”

photograph 12 friends using his Rolleiflex and just a single

work,” says Arizona Highways Photo Editor Jeff Kida.

His shoes wore out.

12-shot roll of film. And, soon, he hopes to start a project with

“First, it’s immediately apparent that he enjoys what he’s

his longtime friend, Mike Campbell.

photographing. Second, he has a great sense of rhythm and

“We want to take a number of extended trips before

timing, nothing feels forced or contrived. His work draws

we get too old to do it,” Scott says. “Throw a dart at a map

years or so, ever since I wrote about Scott for Arizona Highways. He was in the middle of 100 Years 100 Ranchers, a marathon project that celebrated families who have ranched in Arizona for 100 years or more. The project coincided with

At first, it was the vastness of the landscape that drew Scott

the state’s Centennial in 2012, and as I sat with Scott to talk

west. But then it was the people.

about it, it was easy to see that he works in a way that’s

me into the scene, and I’m allowed to enjoy it — as if I’m on

“I appreciated the time it took to go places — to get

and spend two weeks a year for three years in whatever town

different.

location with him.”

from point A to point B,” he says. “But I was never really

we end up in, working and shooting. We’d go back at the

Because Scott Baxter doesn’t just make photographs to

Indeed, being on location with Scott is easy, the starts to our

a landscape photographer. I got to know the people, got

end of three years and have a show. Just so we can spend

make photographs. He studies people. he makes return visits.

stories easier still. With Harrison, he sent me an email:

to know their stories. It wasn’t as though I thought I was

He drives long and far and often into the widest reaches of a

There might be an interesting story for the magazine down there.

some time.”

on a mission, but I could tell some stories weren’t being

Jim Harrison, the writer, lives next to the Bergiers and uses one of

place to make his portraits.

told. I always try to do something that’s less about art and

their old ranch houses to write in for the last 20+ years. He winters

And his projects — 100 Years 100 Ranchers, Top Hand, The

photography, and more about stories and historical context.

in Patagonia & summers in Livingston, Montana. He wrote,

Outside Circle — take time. Most often, they take years.

About trying to preserve something.”

“Legends of the Fall.” Just an idea. He seems a bit of a character.

“When someone sticks out their hand and looks you in the

The photographs are often in black and white, captured

Just a thought.

eye and they shake your hand — that’s my impetus

on large-format film. The method is a slower, more personal

for finishing,” Scott told me back in 2011. “It just needs to

A few months later, we eased into the interview, watching

process, allowing him to study the spirit of the people

get done.”

birds dance and dive into the bush around the writer’s deck,

he photographs.

And so much of his work gets done in the West.

watching Harrison chain smoke American Spirits. Hours

In one of my favorite of Scott’s portraits, a shot of the H4

His affinity for photographing sweeping grasslands, horses,

passed like minutes, and Scott photographed our subject

Ranch’s Connie Brown that appears in his new book, “Life on

in his writing room, in the doorway of the little cottage, in

“I always have projects in mind,” Scott says. “Most of these things come to me in a really quiet moment. I’ll have some thought and will jot it down in a notebook. I’d like to work with a writer and a poet or a painter. The West is the West no matter how you’re looking at it.”

So he’ll keep working, keep pushing.

Because stories seldom tell themselves.

Jim Pyeatt, Pyeatt Ranch, Santa Cruz County, Arizona, Ranching Family since 1899

Bennett Griffen, Griffen Cattle Ranch Gila County, Arizona

First Snow

Eagle People, Navajo County, Arizona

Jerry Vojnick, Dave Perkins Ranch, Yavapai County, Arizona

Mothering Up, Wyoming Range

Minnie Griffen in the Headquarters Kitchen, Griffen Ranch, Gila County, Arizona

Hands & Honda, O’Haco Cattle Company, Coconino County, Arizona

Jim Harrison, Sonoita Creek, Santa Cruz County, Arizona

Joel, Maricopa County, Arizona

John Ladd at the old house, Ladd’s San Jose Ranch, Cochise County

Guy A. Nicholl, Nicoll Bros. Ranch, Apache County, Arizona

Jim Riggs, tumbleweed and the gate, Crossed J Ranch, Arizona

Frank Stephen, Stephens Ranch, Mohave County, Arizona

Jesse Hooker Davis, branding at the Sierra Bonita Ranch, Grant County, Arizona

Joel Maloney

Jones on horse

Newell round pen

Tanner’s Spur, Voight Cabin, MLY Ranch, Apache County, Arizona

Sam Luce, Luce Ranch, Greenlee County, Arizona

Sheila Carlson, Flying M Ranch, Coconino County, Arizona

Sam in his Scotch Cap, Y Cross Ranch, Apache County, Arizona

Silkie Perkins at Bakers Pass Tank, Yavapai County, Arizona

William Faulk, Denton, Montana

Clayson & “Momma� at Grand Falls, Navajo Nation, Arizona

K.T. Thompson, Schoolhouse Section, MLY Ranch

Sy Westbrook, Apache County, Arizona

K.T. on the push, Schoolhouse Section, MLY Ranch, Apache County, Arizona

Working the Loop, Schoolhouse Section, MLY Ranch, Apache County, Arizona

Survivor

Connie Brown, H4 Ranch, Gila County, Arizona

Sy Westbrook, Apache County, Arizona

Bert P. Randell with his horse Buddo, Randell Ranch, Coconino County, Arizona

Doc Sam, Amazing Grace, Luce Ranch, The Blue, Greenlee County, Arizona

Scott Baxter

scottbaxterphotographer.com

Scott is a photographer based in Carefree, Arizona. His award winning photographs has been featured in, American Cowboy, Arizona Highways, Cowboys & Indians, Men’s Journal, and Western Horseman. His fine art photography is in the permanent collections of the Phoenix Art Museum, The Desert Caballeros Western Museum, and The Scottsdale Public Art Program. In 2014, he was awarded both Best of Show, and Gold Medal for works on Paper at the West Select exhibition at the Phoenix Art Museum.

Scott also recently completed 100 Years 100 Ranchers, a ten year official Legacy Project for the Arizona Centennial.

This compilation of compelling large format black-andwhite photographs depicting many of Arizona’s longestactive ranchers, 100 Years 100 Ranchers, has been featured in exhibits and presentations across the state. Arizona Highways Editor Robert Stieve described the project as “the best photographs ever made of ranchers in Arizona” with “a historical importance that doesn’t exist anywhere else.

100 Years 100 Ranchers isn’t just a series of artful and captivating black and whites, it’s a permanent record of a way of life – a disappearing way of life – that has deep roots in our state.”

Sunee’s Spur #2, Santa Cruz County, Arizona

Scott’s stark image of rancher, Sam Udall entitled, First Snow, was featured on the December, 2011 Cover of Arizona Highways – 50 Greatest Photos.

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