Longtime Arizona Highways contributor Scott Baxter's newest exhibition, The Gather, opens at Western Spirit, Scottsdale's Museum of the West, on Saturday, December 24. Featuring photographs from three major projects — 100 Years 100 Ranchers, Top Hand and Gathering the Remnants — along with some new work, this exhibition represents Baxter’s major fine art projects, taking viewers across the American West on an epic photographic journey.
The Gather is a phrase used in the ranching community to describe an experience as much as an activity. North Dakota rancher Jessie Veeder explains:
“As a ranch woman, this phrase conjures up images of roundup season, sitting on top of my horse and moving our cattle together from all corners of our pastures. It’s the throaty hum of the animals’ voices as they call to their calves or to one another or out into the world, seemingly saying, ‘I’m here, I’m coming. All right already.’ It’s the creak of the old cows’ bones as we let them slowly navigate themselves toward a well-worn path they know toward home. And it’s the ‘heya’ and the ‘c’mon’ we let out of our lungs as we follow the small sea of black backs, the quiet counting and calculations in our heads, our warm breath cooling down in the autumn air. It’s the swing of our leg off the saddle and the swing of the gate when they’re all in and accounted for so we can take a deep breath, put our hands on our hips and say, ‘Well, all right then…’ and move on to the sorting.”
The exhibition runs through July 30, 2023. For more information, visit scottsdalemuseumwest.org.