Incredible photos capture modern-day cowboys throughout the USA and South America and reveal ‘humanity at its best’

Anouk became fascinated by cowboys when she was growing up in France. She says: ‘I was intrigued with their lives as they were portrayed through books and on film as irreverent, rugged frontiersmen, with lives full of romance, danger, adventure, and intrigue.’ The above photo was taken in the USA

Anouk moved to New York as an adult and began travelling the USA, where the above picture was taken. The photographer explored the cowboy culture she had become a big fan of as a child, revealing: ‘Whether I found myself in Texas, Kansas, or neighboring states, people smiled, men tipped their hat, nodded to strangers, and exchanged friendly hellos’

Anouk was surprised at how, even after many generations, the cowboys’ thriving culture ‘continues to reflect the same basic tenets, virtues, and customs with unwavering pride. The essence and spirit of the American West are in fact deeply rooted inside of them all.’ The above picture, titled Marlboro, was taken in the USA

Anouk says: ‘[The cowboys’] daily lives, breeds, landscape, climate, language, tools, equipment and cultures each have their own nuances and yet all belong to a singular tapestry of heritage, preserving the eternal hope, soul, and optimism that come with living in freedom and independence.’ The above picture, titled ‘Merica, was taken in the United States

While Anouk says most people in the modern world are ‘constantly in flux’, cowboys have ‘steadfast beliefs that a noble life can be achieved if it is grounded in their values of hard work, self-reliance, humility, and sacrifice to support their families and communities’. This is why she chose to travel across the Americas photographing them, taking the above picture in USA

The Frontier: Cowboys of the Americas project was the first time that Anouk had gone to South America to document modern-day ranchers. The above photo was taken in Uruguay and is unposed for ‘a more natural and authentic picture’. Anouk explains: ‘I try to give [the cowboys] space so they can be themselves and once they realise my process, they forget I am even there’

One of Anouk’s favourite moments was in Brazil’s Pantanal, the largest tropical wetland in the world, where the Pantaneiros have lived since the 1700s. Anouk met some of these Brazilian cowboys, including the one pictured above, and rode through chest-high waters and tropical forests with them. ‘It was very hot and humid. Caymans were floating just a couple of feet away from my legs,’ she recalls

At first, Anouk says she found it ‘difficult’ to integrate with the ranchers, who are ‘private and sceptical of strangers’. However, the cowboy friends she’d previously made in the States slowly introduced her to others, including to ranchers in Mexico, above. ‘Eventually it all came together in the greatest way,’ she adds

Above, a picture taken in Uruguay, where Spanish is predominately spoken. Anouk was amazed at how she and the cowboys on these foreign frontiers ‘immediately had an unspoken mutual respect  and bond’, despite not speaking the same language

While on her travels around South America, Anouk saw gauchos riding barefoot through ‘the endless emerald green, tall grasses of the Pampas of Argentina’, above. In keeping with tradition, these gauchos carry a large knife on their belt and drink a bitter, caffeine-rich tea called mate, instead of coffee

A fourth-generation gaucho in Uruguay (where the above picture was taken) called Colacho Lanfranco told Anouk how his family first settled there in 1880, revealing: ‘One hundred and forty-four years later, we continue to live and work on these lands, with the same values as the first generations’

Anouk travelled to Guatemala, pictured above, for Frontier. ‘The world is now turning to the cowboy as inspiration like never before,’ she says. ‘To revisit them in the 21st century is to hold a mirror to ourselves to realise how fast and how far our own mainstream culture has gone’

Frontier: Cowboys of the Americas is out now and published by Images Publishing. It’s available from Amazon for £53.82/$85