Werner Segarra: Vaqueros de la Cruz del Diablo
Werner Segarra: Vaqueros de la Cruz del Diablo
EXTENDED! On view through May 19, 2024
Bilingual Exhibit | Exposición Bilingüe
Generously sponsored by:
Siri, Siria Guadalupe Duarte Anguiano. Rancho “La Puerta del Arroyo”. Huásabas, 2016
Rancho “Monte Alegre”. En la puerta del arroyo. Juan Francisco, Vinicio y Arturo Durazo Duarte. Huásabas, 2013
Familia Chente Dorame. Huásabas, 2013
Western Spirit is thrilled to announced the upcoming opening of Vaqueros de la Cruz del Diablo/Cowboys from the Cross of the Devil, the captivating photographic exhibition by Werner Segarra, set to open to the public on June 20, 2023, and run through February 2024. Cowboys from the Cross of the Devil features 57 images that transport viewers into the hidden world of the vaquero/cowboy from the rough terrain of the Sonoran region of northern Mexico.
The Collection
Segarra’s collection of photographs, captured over thirty years, reveals the vaqueros on their own terms, as the artist comes to integrate into and identify with the community he documents. Through portraits of place, work, and community, Segarra brings the emblematic figure of the desert frontier to vivid life, showcasing their otherworldly high Sierra mountain home, their attire, and their way of life. In Cowboys from the Cross of the Devil, Segarra chronicles a culture influenced by modernity and globalization, where the horse has been replaced by an ATV, the sombrero for a baseball cap, the handmade tehua for sneakers, and the radio for a smartphone. The photographs are a one-of-a-kind repository, the last recordings of a timeworn way of life that will soon remain only in the fading memories of those who once lived it.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Werner Segarra, a Puerto Rican of German descent, lived his childhood and adolescence in various countries worldwide; the experience nurtured his artistic sensibility and a rich understanding of diverse cultures. For more than three decades, Segarra has traveled on foot, on horseback, and in this red Mazda 1986 truck, the immensity of the Sierra Alta de Sonora, Mexico, motivated by a deep passion for capturing with his lens the life, practices, and riveting environment of the Sonoran vaqueros. While performing his successful commercial career, Segarra devised a technique he calls “architectural portraiture.” He resides in Phoenix, AZ, with his wife, Ellie, and their twins, Iggy and Milana.