ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPH OF A CATTLE ROUND-UP

New York: Photo Researchers, Inc, 1964. Joseph J. "Joe" Munroe (1917-2014) was an Ohio-born photographer and filmmaker who studied with Ansel Adams early on in his career. After serving in the Air Force during World War II, he settled in California, where he developed an interest in agriculture and rural life. "Munroe's camera caught the last days of farmers driving teams of horses and picking cotton by hand. From the 1940s through the 1970s, technology brought dramatic changes to farm life in the United States. There were still families operating small farms with manual labor, but fewer of them. From family-operated farms in the Midwest to the vast fields of California's Central Valley, the joys, challenges, and sheer hard work of rural life are seen in Joe's photographs" (ref.Ohio Memory, Joe Munroe Collection). A rugged, powerful image, capturing a cowboy on horseback rounding up cattle at the Van Vleck Ranch southeast of Sacramento, family-owned since 1856. Original borderless, double-weight silver gelatin photograph, measuring 25.5cm x 34cm (ca.10" x 13 3/8") and mounted on board. Photocopied sheet mounted on verso, with photographer's stamp, Photo Researchers sticker, holograph snipe, and the following note: "...at the Stanley Van Vleck Ranch at Sloughhouse, Calif. SE of Sacramento...". Light wear to extremities, some "spidering" to corners, with a short crease toward lower right corner; Very Good+.