Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West, will feature Vaqueros de la Cruz del Diablo/Cowboys from the Cross of the Devil, a photographic exhibition by Werner Segarra starting June 20 and running through February 2024.

Cowboys from the Cross of the Devil features fifty-seven images that transport viewers into the hidden world of the vaquero/cowboy from the rough terrain of the Sonoran region of northern Mexico.

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the Cross of the Devil, Segarra chronicles a culture influenced by modernity and globalization, where the horse has been replaced by an ATV, the sombrero for a baseball cap, the handmade tehua for sneakers, and the radio for a smartphone.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.

Western Spirit Scottsdale’s Museum of the West’s Assistant Director - Collections, Exhibitions, and Research, Tricia Loscher, said in a press release, “While the title, Cowboys from the Cross of the Devil, may be startling at first to the ear, the photography reveals a breathtaking beauty in the rough terrain. This is a must-see exhibition that offers a glimpse into a world that is rapidly disappearing, and it promises to be a fascinating experience for all who attend.”

The exhibition reveals photography featuring soaring mountains, plunging cliffs, expansive skies, and under them, the vaquero, day after tireless day at work among his herds. Segarra’s remarkable panoramas are captured without any technological gimmicks, relying on natural photographic techniques and patience, and adding the human factor: a subject captured just so against the vastness of a landscape.

SRP has provided a generous contribution to sponsor the 2023 Vaqueros de la Cruz del Diablo/Cowboys from the Cross of the Devil exhibition by Werner Segarra.

For more information on Vaqueros de la Cruz del Diablo/Cowboys from the Cross of the Devil, please visit https://scottsdalemuseumwest.org/project/werner-segarra/.