Shooting Cowboys traces the transformation of the cowboy image in Canada over a ninety-year period. An extensive selection of historical photographs from the Canadian west examines the photographer's role in creating and influencing the cultural myth of the cowboy. Brock Silversides has assembled some of the most fascinating and surprising images.

The text and photographs reveal how and why the archetypical cowboy images evolved, and how these images were used for postcards, tourist literature and souvenirs, magazine and book illustrations, and even for selling cattle. Included here are examples of documentary, promotional, and journalistic photography- some honest, some idealized, some fabricated, but all extremely interesting.

Brock Silversides is the director of Media Commons (audiovisual library, media archives and microtext) at the University of Toronto Libraries. He hails from Saskatchewan, spent many years in Alberta and now spreads good news of the West to the eastern regions. He is the author of several books, including The Face Pullers, Shooting Cowboys, and Prairie Sentinels.

Brock Silversides' profile page