Triggered: Matthew Porter

Giant, 2008. © Matthew Porter. Courtesy of M+B, Los Angeles

Image and Text by Mathew Porter

In 2009, I traveled to New Mexico to photograph my cowboy uncle. I’d
become interested in pictures that dealt with iconography and myth, but
I didn’t want to appropriate the work of other artists. I wanted to
author my own versions, and that meant going straight to the source.

His property backs up against state land. A wide, flat arroyo leads up a
slope from the back of his house, giving way to a series of dusty peaks,
dotted with low scrub. He was on horseback, and I was on foot. I was
also carrying a Pentax 6x7 II, a beast of a camera and not a great
choice to hang around your neck while you run up a hill.

I managed to get this frame while he waited for me on a ridge line. It
was a stormy, overcast day, and I was hoping for sun. But the late
afternoon gloaming was burning through the cloud layer, and offered a
little warmth to the grey sky.

The Hindenburg floating in the distance is a model that I purchased on
ebay, and photographed in my apartment. For me the Hindenburg is science
fiction, a technical and design marvel that exists in a parallel
universe. Tainted by Nazi pride, it eventually suffered the indignation
of having a swastika stamped on its fin, and so is forever spoiled. Much
like most of the iconic images of the American West that contain images
of cowboys, you can’t separate the romanticism they contain from the
legacy of brutality and racism that produced them. I considered
photoshopping out the swastika, but in the end I left it. Why defang the
picture’s meaning? But this was ten years ago, and now I feel
differently. If I could do it again, I’d remove it.

Check out more of Matthew’s work on his website