22 21 March 2020 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113

JA N E H I LT O N

ALL PICTURES © JANE HILTON

ÔI

’ve never ridden a horse,'

says Jane Hilton, matter

of factly. The framed

portraits of John Wayne

and Clint Eastwood stare out from

the bookshelf. Jane was ten years

old when she first straddled a horse

on a wet week in Wales, as school

trips often were. While her friend

Lynn bolted away and others

trotted triumphantly around, Jane’s

horse, Jet, stood firm. ‘Give it a good

hard kick,’ suggested an instructor.

Jane obliged and Jet took off with

speed. Jane’s body didn’t and

involuntary back-flipped on to the

ground leaving her severely winded.

For this wanna be cowboy, it wasn’t

a good equine introduction.

Jane’s fascination with cowboy

culture began wedged between her

family on their suburban home

counties sofa, watching Westerns

Bonanza and The Virginian. It

culminated over three decades later

with her 2010 book (published by

S ch i lt), Dead Eagle Trail. Looking

out of the Farrow and Ball blue

painted studio across a grotty, grey

north London morning, Jane

explains: ‘Whilst on a road trip in

the United States, I was

commissioned by The Times

Magazine in 2006 to photograph a

17-year-old cowboy called Jeremiah

Karsten. He had travelled 4,000

western

Photographer Jane Hilton has a

penchant for the American West.

She tells Peter Dench about her travels

miles on horseback from his native

Alaska to Mexico which took him

two and a half years to complete.

Immediately after, I met him in

Cortez, Colorado, where he had

returned to spend time with a

young girl he had fallen in love

with. He was then nineteen. I took a

photograph in Shiprock, New

Mexico, an evocative image of

Jeremiah riding along the roadside:

barriers and fencing made it

difficult for him to go cross country.

Wild horses trail behind him which

he used to sell to local ranches after

he had broken them in. The

photograph re-introduced me to a

love of landscape photography and

Best

Top left: Allan

Randolph, Gun

Collector, Beulah,

Colorado