Cowboys
After Barbed Wire
Ute Behrend
Photography
08.11.2024-26.01.2025
Renowned German photographer and artist Ute Behrend presents with her exhibition ‘Cowboys – after barbed wire‘an innovative perspective on the myth of the cowboy
Behrend is co-founder of the publishing house BUMMBUMM BOOKS and managing director of the German Photographic Academy. Her work is exhibited internationally. She has published six monographs to date.
In this exhibition, Behrend focuses on the historical legacy of the cowboy – an icon that has been closely associated with freedom, toughness and masculinity since the 1880s.
After the Civil War in 1865, capturing wild cattle offered many freed slaves, Mexicans and Native Americans a new source of income. This is how they became cowboys. However, the invention and use of barbed wire in the 1880s significantly restricted their way of life. It was only through the shows of Buffalo Bill, alias Bill Cody, that the figure of the cowboy became popular. Since then, the figure of the cowboy has been repeatedly reinterpreted, idealised and heroised in all media.
Behrend's photographs reflect on the cowboy myth at the intersection of myth and reality, questioning its connections to gender and cultural identities. With striking aesthetics and narrative density, she challenges clichés and shows how the longing for male heroic figures shapes the collective consciousness. In the context of the US elections on 5 November, the exhibition also offers a timely reflection on the American icon of the cowboy and its enduring global impact.
Behrend's photographs offer a poetic, critical approach to this figure and question the media's portrayal of cultural images and their influence on our thinking. The exhibition reflects on the illusion that the camera shows an objective picture of reality – a modern primitivism that fails to recognise the complexity of memories and projections.
Ute Behrend lives and works in Cologne. Her work ‘Bärenmädchen / Bear Girls’ (2019) was awarded the Julia Cameron Prize and the German Photobook Prize. Her work "Back Ute Behrend lives and works in Cologne. Her work ‘Bärenmädchen / Bear Girls’ (2019) was awarded the Julia Cameron Prize and the German Photobook Prize. Her work ‘Back to nature’ was nominated for the Merck Prize in 2020 and awarded best work at the Copenhagen Photofestival in 2021. Her latest book, ‘Cows and Cars,’ was published in 2023/2024.
