Cheyenne L. Rouse: Photographing the Vanishing West

Cheyenne L. Rouse has spent more than three decades photographing the American West, and these days she lives inside the picture. She shows her work at more than 30 juried art shows and festivals a year across the Western United States, and home is wherever her RV is parked. Her photographs of rusted trucks, painted barns, red rock and mountain chapels are also on Brakebee, gathered on her Cheyenne L. Rouse Photography artist profile.

From Miami to the open West

Cheyenne was born and raised in South Florida. She spent winters in the Florida Keys and summers on her family's farm in the mountains of North Carolina, and that upbringing gave her a lifelong connection to the land. Photography was her favorite subject in school, and apart from one high school class, she taught herself.

In 1989 she traveled through northern New Mexico and southern Utah with friends, and the trip changed her plans. "The light, the colors, the smells, everything about the Southwest intrigued me," she told the Arizona State Press. At the time she and her twin sister ran a design business in Miami. She went home, broke the news to her family and moved West to photograph the desert. When her family told her nobody makes a living as a photographer, her answer was short. "'Watch me,' I told them."

Film, stock work and adventure

She built her first career on film. Through the 1990s she shot stock and assignment work in extreme adventure sports, outdoor recreation, health and fitness, and Western and Southwestern culture and landscapes. Her clients included Sunset Magazine, Outside Magazine, Outdoor Photographer, Backroads, Outdoor Research and the U.S. Postal Service. She wrote as well, with photo essays and columns in Outdoor Photographer, Park City Traveler and Utah Outdoors, and she co-authored the book Camping: An Outdoor Action Guide.

After 9/11 the stock photography business took a hard hit, and she stepped away from the camera for a reset. She worked as a personal trainer and earned a real estate license, but the pull never left. In 2008 she bought her first digital SLR. The red Canon box sat on her kitchen counter for months until she took the camera on a short trip to Moab. "I had found love again, and this time, it was with a digital camera," she said. She came back to photography with a new focus on digital fine art.

Light, color and HDR

That second start came with a new specialty. From 2010 to 2015, Photomatix sponsored Cheyenne as an HDR specialist, and she taught workshops and spoke at events across the United States. In 2012 she also launched an eBook series for other photographers, Cheyenne's Top 10 Photo Locations, with guides to New Mexico and Southern Utah.

You can see her eye for light in Sedona Reflection, an HDR photograph of Cathedral Rock mirrored in water, with a cactus heavy with red fruit in the foreground. Her artist statement explains what she is after in a frame like that. "My photographs are more than just images, they are moments in time that spoke to my soul. Through my work, I invite you to see what I saw and feel what I felt when I pressed the shutter."

The stories in rust and old wood

Cheyenne is known for bold images of the American West and Southwest, and her favorite subjects are often the quiet ones: rusted relics, forgotten homesteads and timeworn details. She calls it the "Vanishing West." On her website she describes her photography as a celebration of the fading nostalgia and Americana of the West, stories she sees disappearing fast.

The old pickup in Dodge Bootlegger, a rusted Dodge truck photographed in Utah is a good place to start. The Arizona State Press ran the image with its 2012 profile of her. From there, take a drive with Route 66 Vette, a classic red Corvette on Route 66 in Hackberry, Arizona, or stop at Lavender Adobe, a weathered adobe facade in Tucson's Barrio Viejo. Life & Liberty, a red barn with an American flag in western Idaho, carries the words "In God We Trust Life Liberty" painted across its side.

None of it is set up. "Nothing in my photographs is ever staged, what you see is exactly what I saw when I arrived," she writes. She travels across the West and lets her scenes reveal themselves. These days, she says, "I only photograph what moves me, what stirs something deep inside."

Sacred places and wild ones

Some of her strongest work sits where landscape and history meet. Sunburst Kiva, an ancient kiva in southeastern Utah, catches a burst of sun through a rock overhang. Teton Chapel, the Chapel of the Transfiguration beneath the Grand Teton Range, sets the chapel against the peaks of Wyoming. And Desert Duel, two wild horses from Utah's Onaqui herd, shows the free-roaming side of the West.

Life on the art show road

Cheyenne knows both sides of the gallery wall. From 2010 to 2013 she owned and ran Ancient Light Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona, and since 2018 she has traveled full time from show to show. Back in 2012, as she got ready to leave the gallery for the road, she said, "The road is where I thrive and where I create my best work to show with the world."

Collectors who find her booth get something they can't order online. Her Metal on Metal pieces and her vintage Leather & Watercolor Paper mixed media pieces are sold only at shows, and each one is one of a kind. At select shows she also shares a combined booth called The American West Gallery with photographer James C. Tunell. His gold and copper toned work draws on the style of Edward S. Curtis, and her color photographs bring a contemporary view of the same land. For promoters, it's a good example of two artists building one booth around a shared story. Her current season runs from Cave Creek and Prescott, Arizona, to Whitefish, Montana, and Teton Village, Wyoming, and her art show schedule is the place to see where she'll be next.

She doesn't travel alone. Her French Bulldog, Poptart, rides along, and their life on the road led Cheyenne to a second craft as a children's book author with the Poptart's Happy New Life series. The first book comes to every show, signed with a Poptart pawtograph.

Bringing her West home

Most of Cheyenne's prints on Brakebee are satin aluminum. On her own site she describes the satin finish as sleek and modern, with no gloss and no reflection, which suits images full of deep shadow and bright desert sky. For a full room of the West, browse every print on Cheyenne's Brakebee profile. If you're looking for western photography prints with a story behind each one, start with her rusted trucks and barns. To read more about her life behind the lens, visit Cheyenne L. Rouse Photography, and find more artists like her in our Artist Stories.

Source: About Cheyenne L Rouse, Cheyenne L. Rouse Photography, https://gallery.ancientlightphotos.com/about/

Source: Art Murmur: Cheyenne Rouse, The Arizona State Press, https://www.statepress.com/article/2012/11/art-murmur-cheyenne-rouse

Source: Introducing the Photographic Faculty, Shutterbug, https://www.shutterbug.com/content/introducing-photographic-faculty

Source: Sedona Reflection, Brakebee, https://brakebee.com/products/4675

Source: Art Show Schedule, Cheyenne L. Rouse Photography, https://gallery.ancientlightphotos.com/page2

Source: Fine Art Photography by Cheyenne L Rouse, Cheyenne L. Rouse Photography, https://gallery.ancientlightphotos.com/

Source: Dodge Bootlegger, Brakebee, https://brakebee.com/products/4667

Source: Route 66 Vette, Brakebee, https://brakebee.com/products/4676

Source: Lavender Adobe, Brakebee, https://brakebee.com/products/4691

Source: Life & Liberty, Brakebee, https://brakebee.com/products/4703

Source: Sunburst Kiva, Brakebee, https://brakebee.com/products/4680

Source: Teton Chapel, Brakebee, https://brakebee.com/products/4684

Source: Desert Duel, Brakebee, https://brakebee.com/products/4695

Source: Fine Art Print Pricing & Ordering Info, Cheyenne L. Rouse Photography, https://gallery.ancientlightphotos.com/page1

Source: CHEYENNE L ROUSE PHOTOGRAPHY, Brakebee, https://brakebee.com/u/CHEYENNE%20L%20ROUSE%20PHOTOGRAPHY