TEXAS, USA - 2022...

I choose to be long of parody, as to exaggerate helps to communicate. My default position is to be bold in any narrative. In this photograph I wanted to fully embrace
the vibe of a honky-tonk bar in Texas, peopled by hard working, hard living cowboys whom David Allen Coe made pivotal to his song writing. These men love a
beer, a smoke and a honky-tonk girl, who brings out the masculinity that
defines them.

John Steinbeck
- the American literary giant - wrote “I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but
I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion.”

I get it, and cowboy culture is core to that
religion. To try to
immerse oneself in Texan culture and not spend time with true cowboys is akin
to holidaying in Italy and eating at Burger King rather than the local
trattoria. The cowboys in this image all play pool, all drink beer, all smoke,
all love girls and all have manners. What you see, is what you get.

But I needed a strong lead and Roxanna Redfoot does
this so well. She is comfortable with playing bad ass, and she can do it with
no real effort, which is why we so often cast her. She is not in character -
she is just herself.

Sometimes one person can kill an image, but that
evening in Bandera, in the Hill Country of Texas, everyone nailed it. The
saloon is the Arkey Blue’s Silver Dollar, where so many legendary country music
singers have passed by and sang. By the bar downstairs, there is an open door
and that gave me the chance to play with a little ambient light.