Texas, USA 2021

This was a challenging set, but great fun. We did all we could to be true to the concept. Indeed, after the shoot was wrapped at dusk, we enjoyed a contemporary Texan feast on site with barbequed steak, ample refreshment and live country music. The chosen location was a private ranch not many miles north of Big Bend National Park on the Mexican border.

In my mind this was always going to be a West Texas shoot. My intent was that every one of my frontier characters had to be strong and play their role with authority. I was less concerned with mirroring the exact positioning in Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece than I was with the personal safety of the talent as the steer was a massive animal and we had no real option but to work around him and his comfort zone.

There was no picture without the Longhorn, but it was not easy to encourage him into the centre of the set during the ideal light – which was about an hour before sunset. Roxanna Redfoot from Dallas always plays her role to perfection, no matter the circumstances, and this shoot was another case in point. She cuts the perfect contrast to all around her. The cowboys didn’t need to dress up; they are what they are down on the Rio Grande.