Jim Krantz's images of cowboys and the sweeping landscapes of the American West resonate with a timeless strength. His photographs, in the tradition of the great painters of the American West, are visual narratives that evoke the same sense of place and story once immortalized by painters like Frederick Remington. Krantz’s work is not just a record of the land and its people; it is an interpretation of the West as a symbol of independence and a connection to what might be a fleeting way of life.

Krantz’s photographs do not merely document but elevate the cowboy and the frontier into archetypes that speak to the American imagination. His images possess an emotive resonance, orchestrating each composition with deliberate care to capture not just the physical world but the deeper essence of each subject. Krantz’s relentless energy and disposition for experimentation push every form of photographic process.

The contemporary artist Richard Prince, known for his appropriation of other people’s work, recognized the power of Krantz’s photographs when he copied Krantz’s pictures for his Cowboys series.  Yet Prince’s appropriation both acknowledges and credits Krantz’s work not just as pictures of the American West but as a cultural touchstone.

It is not just the strength of his subject matter that has made Krantz’s work iconic—it is also his remarkable technical skill and boundary pushing experiments as a photographer. Krantz's understanding of light, his technical expertise and aesthetic sensibility allow him to create photographs that feel timeless and immediate and part of a larger conversation about American art, identity, and legacy.

— James Danziger