"I’ve long photographed Colorado’s public lands….high mountain wilderness, our eastern plains, and the west slope’s massive sandstone river canyons. Now I’ve pointed my large format

camera at the other 60 percent of Colorado’s land mass….it’s private lands and in particular what remains of her working ranches. Coincidentally, I will not be far from the places I’ve explored for the last 40 years. From fields of wheat on the great plains, to fertile hay meadows in our mountain valleys, to serpentine canyons offering native grasses, ranches exist in every nook, every eco-habitat that Colorado’s diverse landscape has to offer. I will preserve on film hay bales instead of wildflowers, weathered barns instead of forests of blue spruce, yet in most cases including the same snow-capped Rocky Mountains that have always served as background for my foregrounds. I invite you to join me on this two-year journey to protect on film, and I hope ultimately in reality, the bucolic, rural landscape that defines Colorado beyond the borders of its public lands."

- John Fielder

Ranches of Colorado

A 2009 Project by Celebrated
Colorado Photographer John Fielder
and the Colorado Land Trust Community

Tucked into every corner of the Colorado landscape are places where legends still live. The ranches of the West, and the ranchers who run them, embody what is true about America, and Yust Ranch near Kremmling what Americans want to be true: self sufficiency, determination, independence, competence, fearlessness, and an abiding reverence for the land that has blessed us with abundance and opportunity.

Their symbolism is integral to the American mythology. So, too, visually, they are integral to the panorama of Colorado: the mowed hay meadows, the miles of lonely barbed wire, and the weathered barns are as much a part of the Colorado landscape as the wild, craggy peaks. In his upcoming book, photographer John Fielder captures these ranch landscapes on film.

Rogers Ranch near Meeker Colorado’s ranchlands are fast being lost to development. Conversely, federal and state tax laws encourage ranch protection. Nature photographer John Fielder wants to accelerate the rate at which ranches are being preserved by manifesting their beauty on film with his large format camera….the same camera that has led to wilderness protection in Colorado.

It is clear that protecting Colorado’s ranches does more than just preserve an industry that has made Colorado great. In large part, open space in Colorado is defined not as much by its wild places as it is by its rural and bucolic scenery. Ranches dominate every region in Colorado: the eastern plains, Fetcher Ranch near Steamboat Springs high mountain valleys, and west slope river canyons. Preserving ranches means preserving viewsheds along rural highways and byways. Ranches are habitat in winter for migratory animals like elk and deer, and most of Colorado’s rivers, creeks, and watersheds depend upon ranches and ranchers for protection.

It is the land trust community that facilitates ranch protection with a device called a conservation easement by working with Colorado ranch families. Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts, Colorado Cattlemen’s Association Agricultural Land Trust, and Colorado Open Lands are project partners and will be the non-profit sector beneficiaries of proceeds of books sales and corporate sponsorship.

The project will be manifested in several formats to achieve maximum exposure to the public as follows:

Book

October, 2009… Available at book retailers throughout Colorado and online. A 2010 scenic calendar will also be published.

Rossi Ranch near Yampa John Fielder is in the middle of a 2-year effort to photograph 50 working, and in most cases multi-generational, Colorado ranches that collectively represent every region and ecosystem in Colorado. Most have already been protected from commercial development with conservation easements and the balance expect protection in the future.

The large format book will be similar in size and design to Colorado 1870-2000, Colorado’s best-selling book of all time (200,000 copies in print) for which Fielder stood in Rossi Ranch near Yampa 300 locations photographed by W.H. Jackson in the 19th century and made a “now” photograph to compare with Jackson’s “then” image. Ranches of Colorado will employ a distinctive leather cover with a barnwood badge. It will contain 350 photographs of 50 Colorado ranches within its 232 pages.

Writer James Meadow of the Rocky Mountain News has been hired to interview 10 ranchers and write thoughtful essays emphasizing the voices of the ranchers themselves as they discuss the history of their family and their relationship with the land. The book will retail for $95 and be published by Boulder’s Westcliffe Publishers. A companion 2010 calendar will also be published.

View all of John's Books Here

Exhibit of Fine Art Prints

October 2, 2009 – March, 2010…. 50 new limited edition photographs from the project will be exhibited at John Fielder’s Colorado gallery in Denver’s ArtDistrict on Santa Fe, 833 Santa Fe Drive. Open Tuesday-Saturday 10-6.

View Locations Here

John Fielder Promotional Tour

Begins October, 2009…John Fielder Ranches of Colorado slide show featuring 250 images from the book and the inspirational music of Aaron Copland to be performed all around Colorado and along the Front Range.

John will tour Colorado communities in partnership with local land trusts after the book release and perform a Ranches of Colorado slide show. The show will promote book sales and all aspects and manifestations of the project, and raise money for the trusts.

View All of John's Events Here

National Western Stock Show Partnership

Photography exhibit & documentary streaming at 9News booth in both January of 2009 and 2010 and to promote the project.

Keep watching this website as we plan to add complete web pages for each of the 50 ranches that John photographed for the project and book. Beginning in February, 2009, for your viewing pleasure, we will begin to add images of all of the ranches. You will even be able to order Fine Art Prints for any image!

If you'd like us to keep you posted about the project and book availability, please enter your email address below and click "Join"