Hunter Barnes: Riding the Silver Dream

Discover the flourishing and diverse rodeo communities active across America today through Barnes' film photographs of ranchers, stock contractors and cowboys

In this photographic essay-book, renowned American documentary photographer Hunter Barnes (born 1977) turns his lens on the enduring culture of the American rodeo: a world of grit, family, tradition and faith that exists far beyond the spectacle of the arena. Barnes spent months on the road with tight-knit communities of riders, stock contractors and rodeo families who carry the rodeo's legacy forward.
Riding the Silver Dream documents traditional ranching and cowboy communities for whom rodeo remains a living heritage alongside communities that have long shaped rodeo culture but are often overlooked in the mythology of the American West. His work highlights the role of Black cowboys, Native American riders, women who have long competed and helped shape rodeo and the working cowboys who practice its oldest traditions. Shot entirely on film, Barnes' portraits reveal riders as they truly are, with battered boots and focused faces, capturing the moment of calm before the chute gate swings open.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1915427029
• ISBN13: 9781915427021
• Release Date: October 2026
• Publisher: Reel Art Press
• Length: 176 Pages